"Bedtime story" use of MP3 CDs - need advice!

[Sasha]

I sometimes find it hard to get to sleep and find it helps to put an audio CD on of a relaxing novel and let it play. Each CD only lasts 40 minutes or something so it's not playing all night and I've usually fallen asleep halfway through.

However, my library has started to buy new audiobooks in CD-MP3 format (i.e. a single CD). I don't own a CD-MP3 player and am wondering if you can program them to play only certain tracks? Otherwise the whole book would be playing for 8 hours or something and might wake me up again!

I've had a bit of a browse on the internet and come across something called a "bookmark function". Is that what I should be looking for?

 

[Andrew]

the last mp3 book I read had one chapter per mp3 file. So assuming yours will be like this, you could simply play one chapter, or you could make a play list that includes a set number of chapters.

 

[Sasha]

Hi Andrew - was it on a CD? There seem to be some on some other sort of gadget and I'm wondering if they function differently. That would be great if I could just choose chapters - that's exactly what I want.

 

[Andrew]

I'm not sure what will be on your cds. But I've purchased CDs with readings in mp3 format. What I did was copy the MP3s to my MP3 player and play them there. If I wanted an easy way to only play a few chapters, I'd copy over only a few.

To help visualize this more, when I copy to the player there are not simply a bunch of files there. They show up in categories. So I could pick out which book I want to play. And I would guess there are MP3 players that have a timer to turn them off after a certain time.

Also, I've checked out book from the library via the Internet. This involves a special free application that interfaces with the library website and launches when you start a download. See if your city has web based library service. What I did was I downloaded to my computer and then transferred to the player. Windows understands of this, and so when my three weeks checkout time is up I can't play it anymore.

Also, you might want to consider this option: http://www.google.com/search?client=opera&rls=en&q=free+mp3+books

 

[hollie9]

I fall asleep to a novel every night, works like a charm. I have a Sansa Clip which is an inexpensive little player of MP3 or WMA files. It is about
2" x 1" and has a clip on the back that you can clip to your clothes if you want. I constantly download from our library and place novels in the Audiobook section of the Clip. It has a Sleep function under settings, I set it to play for an hour and am usually asleep by the time it shuts off. Then I rewind the next day to the place in the novel I remember, from the place where it shut off.

If you go to a site like Anythingbutipod.com you can see that it is number one of their reviews, both for quality of music and more. The newer version of the Clip is called the Clip +. I think I have an 8 bit one but a 4 would be fine. There is always tons of room left on my Clip and I have tons of music and at least 3 novels on it at a time.

It's perfect for library downloads since it plays both formats, MP3 and WMA. Very easy, highly recommended. It also has an AM/FM radio and I often wear it while listening to a book or NPR during the day. My player has run perfectly for the three years I've owned it, I have needed to replace the earphones this year though.

http://www.amazon.com/Sandisk-Sansa...O6QW/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1290190213&sr=8-5




Hollie

 

[camas]

Hollie,

You just helped me solve the problem of what to get my brother for Christmas. Thanks!

 

[hollie9]

I think it's the perfect audiobook player since it does all formats and has the sleep timer. I'm downloading from the library right now!

I do have some audiobook CDs, in the CD format .cda, and some in mp3. I put them in my computer via CD port, then change (rip) the format to MP3 usually using itunes or windows media player for WMA. Then transfer to my clip on my computer.

Hollie

 

[Sasha]

Thanks, hollie, that sounds perfect. I'll definitely look into that model!