I hate it when he is right..

Well, not always. Just when he has been annoying.

I enjoy audiobooks. After lugging a pile of CD's and a CD player on the airplanes I am beginning to seriously consider purchasing an MP3 player.

I mentioned this. I mentioned that I was going to do some research and figure out which was the best. (I would like to point out that I did not, at any time, ask any member of the household for their opinion.)

Evan however, in his annoying, argumentative, aggressive way, immediately told me that there was only one player to get. Everything else in the entire world was crap. He was willing to concede that I might not have to get the most expensive model, but there is only one brand to choose from. (You know what it is. It is the player that "everyone" has).

Okay...so here's the deal:

1. I don't want to get what everyone has. I don't want to do that not because I don't like the product, but because I am hate following the crowd, being another mindless sheep buying the same thing because that's what everyone else is buying.

2. I don't like people in my life bullying me. I don't want to get whatever Evan demands is right. (On the other hand if I do and something goes wrong he will be a pain in the a$$.)

However, I am enough of a grownup to recognize both of these motivations as being childish. I put them aside and proceeded to do the research. Meanwhile Evan took every available opportunity to tell me that I was wasting my time, that he knew all about these things (he doesn't) and that I could either buy a piece of crap or I could buy what he recommended. (I am amazed at how very calm and mature I was able to be throughout this -- at least to his face.)

So this is what I need:
1. Good but not overwhelming storage space. Books are long, but I am only going to read one at time. I may have a few downloaded radio shows, and books typically come in sections that are no more than 150mb. I could probably get by with less than a gig, but I decided to go for at least that.

2. The ability to "book mark" a large file easily and reliably so that I can stop listening and then find the same place later.

3. Being able to speed up or slow down the reader would be cool, but not necessary.

It turns out that it is difficult to find reviews of MP3 players that really discuss their merits for audio books. Bookmarking is not a feature that is mentioned in the specs and reviewers rarely discuss it. So I have been digging around, and this is what I learned:

It appears that the player that unless my library joins an on-line audio library, the player that will do what I want, and be less expensive if I take advantage of an offer with a provider of audiobooks, is the player that Evan has been pushing.

Bad words.

He is going to be insufferable.

Of course he would have been insufferable either way.