Here's what I do. I collect potions and scrolls, only using them in emergencies at first. I don every ring, amulet, piece of armor, and glowing weapons and armor. If any of them are cursed, I put on as much shit as possible except one, then start reading scrolls starting with the most numerous. The four most common scrolls are ID, detect curse, remove curse, and teleportation, all of which I want ID'd. Common scrolls asking for a target are usually ID. Once Identify is... identified, I use those scrolls to ID all my rings and amulets that won't auto-ID. If I've hit D:5 or so and still haven't found anything cursed, I'll sometimes read scrolls and assume any that have no effect are remove curse. The worst that can happen is you waste a scroll or your weapon gets cursed. Hell, if my weapon gets cursed, that just makes ID'ing remove curse all the easier! I just want to read scrolls so that fewer of them will be burned away before I make a stash, so I'm carrying less weight, and so I know which scroll is Teleportation.
You can unambiguously ID all scrolls as long as there's something undead nearby (holy word), something that can be tormented (torment), an object in your inventory that isn't curse-tested (detect curse), a wielded or worn cursed piece of armor (remove curse), a piece of armor that's not already max-enchanted and isn't cursed (enchant armor and curse armor), a wielded, uncursed, non-naturally-branded weapon not max-enchanted (enchant weapon I, II, and III, curse weapon, and vorpalize weapon), a wand or weapon of electrocution not at max charges or enchantment (recharging), at least one visible open floor (fog, summoning, and sometimes random uselessness (although fog might ID if it only fogs the square you're on), and no Silence effect on you at the time (noise, silence, and sometimes random uselessness). If you miss-target with a scroll asking for a target, you either tried to enchant armor a wand or recharge a piece of armor. I usually pick armor unless I think it's still ID. I'd rather have the AC, so I'm more willing to risk a recharge than an enchant armor.
The worst that can happen from reading a scroll is immolation. Immolation doesn't burn scrolls and only does about 40 or 50 damage, more than survivable by the time they start showing up. Don't worry about immolation.