ITunes, Audio Books and slow transfer time

I listen to audio books while I drive via my iPod. I love the sound quality and clean elegance of not having to switch CDs as I drive.
Currently, I have an 160G iPod with video and TV capability, but I seldom use those features - I wanted a large HD so that I could have a whole library of podcasts, books, and music at my finger tip. My ability to continue this practice was all but eliminated during the past month or so - until today!
Just before the holidays, I was reading "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die," published in 2005 by Cassel and saw the best Jazz album "ever." My husband loves jazz, so I searched until I found the album on CD and was thrilled when it came just before Christmas. Because it was a used album, I decided to play it once to be sure that it was in perfect condition. I popped it into my computer and waited for iTunes to open so that I could play it. That didn't happen; instead, the drive sputtered and music stuttered. The "best jazz album ever" sounded like a cat caught somewhere painful...
Surely, the music was not supposed to sound like that! So, I checked the CD, but it looked pristine. I called Dell and went through a long discussion to test my optical drive, it too seemed to be optimal. Then I got too busy with the holidays and family to think about it any more.
My "research assistant" also known as my husband, had time to do some research on the problem and discovered a solution, and I had time to test it out today.

According to ZDNet Blog, the problem is probably because of a driver in Apple's iTunes 8 update. I went through the article and checked everything it suggested, then popped in an album. It loaded in record time! Yeah!