New things to listen to while getting on with the cushion

I've been a big fan of talking books for probably about 20 years and listen to far more books than I read. Mostly I get them from the library but also get a lot of other drama and readings eg from Radio 4/Radio 7, groups like like Darker Projects or from 1950s Old Time Radio collections.

But it's always nice to find new things to listen to and so I was very pleased on Saturday to come across this article on anythingbutipod which alerted me to some great-sounding resources, eg Literal Systems, with recordings by a group of actors. I'm also very taken by a service called Overdrive that libraries subscribe too. Luckily, two of my three local library services are members and - while there's not much choice yet - it looks like a great and very convenient way of getting unabridged talking books.

Coupled with all these new sources of entertainment, I got rather carried away twice in the last few days with impulse buys of two teensy weensy little mp3 players, at prices that were too good to miss.



I'm particularly impressed with the Sansa Clip + (£15 off at Currys, making it just under £25 for the 4GB version) - very well made and with features that are ideally suited to audiobooks. The equally tiny Creative Zen Stone Plus with built-in speaker (£19.90 as the "deal of the day" on ebay last week) seems less user-friendly for audiobooks but the built-in speaker more than makes up for it. I'd been half looking for one of these for a while, but hadn't really thought about the Sansa Clip till seeing it highly recommended at anythingbutipod on Saturday, then spotting it in Currys where we were trying to spend some vouchers we'd got stuck with.

Neither player is intended as a complete replacement for my beloved Frontier Labs Nex 3 model, which is packed with features such as a "repeat track" option (that helps stop me from waking up in a later episode of a serial and hearing whodunnit....)



Its use of an AAA battery is another reason why I'll keep on using it - it's far easier to carry a couple of spare rechargeables than to have to charge an internal battery.

The tiny Sansa Clip is proving great for wearing while pottering around the house, and the Stone's speaker will be very useful while travelling or just to carry round.

Splashing out on these made me realise that I do seem to have accumulated quite a few mp3 players over the years.



None of them is a particularly popular, fashionable or fancy model but they were all chosen for a particular USP - playing mp3s on CD, having speakers, taking compact flash cards, being cheap enough (£3.99) to risk on the beach, a spare etc - and all continue to be used.

The resident Technomage listens to mp3s just as much as me but isn't remotely interested in trying new models. He still sticks to the trusty Frontier Labs Nex II that he bought in 2001 - though it's had a few repairs after nine years of daily use and he keeps an eye open for secondhand/cheap ones as backups.