Rip an Audiobook CD to an IPod

I have been spending time with audiobooks lately. Managing and navigating audio book CDs, which can have up to 99 tracks per disc, can be a nightmare on the IPod unless you build playlists before syncing.

This CNet post, How to rip an audiobook CD to an iPod, was very helpful.

1. Insert Audio CD, and select it in ITunes.
2. Before beginning the import, select all the tracks on the inserted CD, and use menu item Advanced > Join CD Tracks.
3. You can Add Info before the import, to help keep things organized. With all tracks selected, File > Get Info, or context-click for that option. Remember to include the disc number under Get Info > Info tab.
4. For the import settings, use AAC and Spoken Podcast settings for best compression.
5. After the import, which can take several minutes, go to Recently Added in ITunes, select the new import, and in Get Info > Options select:
   
   • Media Kind: Audiobook
   • Remember playback position
   • Skip when shuffling
   • Get Info > Artwork to add artwork. I created nice album artwork for my multi-CD audiobooks, using Photoshop to update the number on each CD of the series.
6. Now you should find your imported CD in the Books section of ITunes.

If your audiobook has filenames associated with chapters, you can break apart the CD into multiple tracks for each chapter. Unfortunately, many MP3 encoded CDs only have numbered tracks that bear no relationship to chapters.