Confused, beggared and bewildered

Google is making a whole lot of changes with Google reader apparently disappearing off the face of the earth. Now, I for one like Google reader and have all my favourite blogs (bloggers) listed there - easy to access - easy to read.
I came across a site called www.google.com/takeout
Up to 15th July, they're giving us the option of copying our own sites to hard disk - have a look, see what you think. Anyway, followed the instructions, spent over an hour downloading the bits I wanted to keep. Oh all right maybe my computer isn't the fastest thing on two gigabytes, but I like it. Got them downloaded and then bingo - can't open the files. Did it all over again - no joy. I filled in the survey and told them that as far as I was concerned it was as useful as a chocolate teapot.
Trying out the bloglovin thing. Still not a clue what I'm doing - any help would be so much appreciated.