[MGogesch]

First off, i have a 350 (and a iHp 120), so i am going to make the asumption that the 550 works the same as both of my iRiver players.

When you turn the player off (by holding the stop botton) it will automaticly start up by playing where you left off last. So with your audiobook example, if you were 35 min into a book, turned your player off, when you powered it up again it would start on the exact same word, (or in the middle of the word) that you stoped at.

My 350 took a bit of abuse. I run cross country for my high school, and i take it to all the meets. I have never run with it, but it hast taken a good beating in my bag, and it still works fine.

The radio works....kind of. It gets OK reception, not reall good. Since the head phone cord is in fact the anteanna for these types of radios, reception can be increased by moving the cord around sometimes. Usually not praticle to do thought.

I think the 550 will do what you want it to. There are other people that make CD mp3 players. Sony makes one that looks fine, as does....panasonic i think. I myself would stick with the iRiver, as i have found them to be the best. I will say that when i bought my CD mp3 player i thought they were the option for me, and now (after two years) find that Hard drive players are a better way to go.