Looking for a good MP3 player for audiobooks

I've been searching for years for a reliable mp3 unit to help me use my workout time efficiently -- they all seem to break. The Uwater G4 unit I received, like the Sansa's I have tired of replacing, is unreliable too. I guess my theory that moisture from my workout was causing the electronics to fail does not hold water. 

Yesterday, I was trying to listen to an audio book and wanted to fast forward through the songs. After I clicked through about 10 clicks, the unit's controls locked up (the button stayed red and I could not turn the unit off, although no sound was being produced). I waited until my mp3 player ran out of power --  very disappointing! Not knowing how to reset the unit, I plugged it back into the computer last night, and added and removed songs using windows media. Today, when I tried to fast forward, the light went blue. Apparently, the control mechanism does not "like" being fast-forwarded.

It appears that the g4 unit just isn't the right unit for me, since my primary focus is audio books, which means I need greater control -- I need to be able to choose chapters and switch over to music fairly seemlessly. Maybe these mp3 players are just inherently unreliable. I don't know how to reset the unit, so I am willing to try to see if that works.

What I would really prefer would be to pay a little more to upgrade to a G7, which appears like it may have better controls. I'm not convinced that the reliability will be any better with the G7, but I can still hope. If I can find a reliable mp3 player, I will promote it until the cows come home on my blog.