Hello! I'm looking for "the perfect" CD player for someone who listens to audiobooks (on CD) daily.

The tough requirement is that the user needs to be able to hit stop, come back in an hour, and easily resume exactly where he left off. Most CD players have a pause feature, but it times out after a few minutes. That's really frustrating for an audiobook as I'm sure you can imagine.
The second problem is that it must have a headphone jack. I want to avoid him having a separate audio receiver -- that's too complicated.
This player will be in use almost all day every day. So it probably needs to be a more robust standalone player and not a walkman style thing. Although a changer might sound like a good idea for books, it would be WAY too complicated; he can barely see.

I've thought about getting a decent DVD player: those seem to always allow you to hit stop and then resume hours later. Some even after you swap CDs. But I couldn't find a DVD player with a headphone jack. I was really surprised by this. I found portable DVD players with headphone jacks but I'm doubtful those would last long.
Any ideas are greatly appreciated. I've been buying the cheap "boom boxes" at WalMart but they die in under a month (really) and don't allow stopping.

Thanks

All of my "old" standalone cd players will stay on "pause" indefinately.

I have a few Sony's hanging around and I tested it on a couple of them without any issue. My HK also works.

They all have Headphone jacks with volume controls, also.

If "newer" models don't function this way (been a looong time since I bought one), you should be able to find a slew of "classics" on ebay.

Do they keep the disc spinning though? More than likely the player will be left paused overnight often. I'd worry about it burning up.

I looked on ebay and found quite a few older Sony models with the headphone jack + volume. These may be a good possiblity... if I can pick them up fairly cheap no big deal about burning them up.

Well I bought a technics cd player about 1999 or 2000. Around that time consumer reports did a test and just let consumer level cd players run constantly until they stopped working... I'm pretty sure it was a panasonic/technics that won after working over a year and a half. Anyhow for what its worth I bought a sony first and found that there was plastic shavings everywhere inside (from the transport gears I guess) took it back got this one and its still working great. I've had 2 dvd players and 2 car cd players die in the time I've had it, even when I left it on for weeks at a time... Another good reason to go the stand alone most only use 8-10 watts of power. well I fail to see a technics on ebay right now with headphone out but i know they exist i knew people who had them mine doesn't though.

/wish they still made players like they use to

Have you considered a DAP? Many of them, including my Zune 80, handle audiobooks wonderfully. Not only can you resume but you can bookmark: very usefull for switching back and forth from music or for listening to multiple audiobooks.
You would have to go through the hassle of ripping your CD's though. Up to you if it's worth it.