I'm still only a student just starting XC work but have already learnt to use NOTAM Check it's not free like some of the others mentioned above (it is very cheap) but it certainly works. All you do is paste the AIS NOTAM list into a window in NOTAM Check and it plots them onto a map for you. Then if you see any where you want to go, you click on them and it shows you the text. Easy.
One of my instructors also demonstrated the need to also call the AIS number. We did a XC route one evening. I had checked the NOTAMS and all was clear but the AIS line told him about a BBMF Hurricane doing fly-pasts close to our route which was not in the NOTAM brief.