One of my favorite uses for my Zune is listening to audiobooks and one of my greatest disappointments with the Zune was the lack of support for the Audible format. Audible’s proprietary format has always been a thorn in my side because unless you’re using a major MP3 player the chances of it supporting Audible are slim. I used to be able to work around this by converting the .aa format into straight .mp3, as it should be, but Audible seems to have patched that hole.

Well, I can start listening to audiobooks once again because emusic.com is now offering them in addition to their usual music catalog, and just like their music, it’s in straight MP3, no DRM to fuss with. Their audiobook catalog isn’t nearly as extensive as Audible’s but I’ll gladly trade a large selection that I can’t listen to for a smaller one that I can.

I just picked up “Indecision” by Benjamin Kunkel and it’s “A hugely funny satire that effortlessly captures the confusion of privileged and educated twentysomthings…”. I couldn’t agree with the reviewer more.

Now I just have to see if the Zune ever gets it’s act together when it comes to setting bookmarks because currently the Zune gets a big fat “F” when it comes to listening to audiobooks. With no ability to set bookmarks or even have your paused location persist between syncs it makes remembering where you last left off a pain in the arse.