Top 5 MP3 players for audiobooks

The Creative Zen is a great player for audiobooks and offers manual bookmarking. Click through to see the other four MP3 players on our list.

(Credit: CNET Networks/Corinne Schulze)

If you think MP3 players have been revolutionary for music, think about what they've done for the audiobook industry. Ten years ago, if you wanted to hear an unabridged audiobook version of Crime and Punishment, you had to spend your money on a shrink-wrapped brick of 16 CDs. Compact discs aren't the best medium for long-format listening: they max out at 90 minutes; the portable players didn't offer bookmarking or auto-resume; and don't get me started on scratched discs.

Today, an unabridged audiobook version of War and Peace fits onto an iPod Shuffle (a Sansa Clip, if you're thrifty). Think of the library of books you can store on a 120GB iPod Classic! MP3 player audiobooks don't skip, they're less expensive than CDs, they can travel in your pocket, and many MP3 players will save your place between listens. But which MP3 players are the best when it comes to audiobook playback?

Read CNET's roundup of the best MP3 players for audiobooks.

[diannamorganti]

Overdrive does have a portion of it's catalogue compatible with iPods now, in .mp3 format. That means that all players are compatible with a portion of the catalog at their library.

See Ovedrive's news release here: http://www.overdrive.com/aboutus/getArticle.aspx?newsArticleID=20080319