I work slightly differently - I read everything as it comes in, then either leave it, respond or star it. I don't delete, and just keep everything in my inbox, but marked as read. (This is in Gmail)

I filter out emails from websites or mailing lists, and label them with the website name or category. If they are things I'll never read, then I mark them as read. (Freecycle for instance generates 100s of emails a day)

To be fair though, I don't really use email to communicate with most people - I don't use IM either. Facebook for quick messages to friends, twitter + friendfeed for more general conversations and my blog for an even more general conversation.

I tend to use email for things I would have written a letter for in the olden days.