Newsgroups or Usenet and Binary Files

Does anyone remember when a long time ago we used to use outlook express on our Macs we used to be able to use the msn newsgroups??? Well that is my only experience with newsgroups. now i just love downloading stuff. I'm a big Science fiction fan, of which there is nothing available on Malta TV of no matter which service you use. So i download it instead! Anyhow i was surfing the web - checking out info on "torrents" - and someone commented that downloading torrents was way to slow and that using newsgroups was faster - i became intrigued and found out that you counld download binary files from newsgroups via usenet - BUT how on earth do you become a member of a newsgroup???? how do you find them? I downloaded "thoth" and "unison" but i am at a loss as to how to use them...... Any info Anybody???