Hey Otto, You were misinformed by the salesperson. It is not true that you can't turn the shuffle off on the IPod Shuffle. I have it and use it for listening to music. It's nice to choose between listening in shuffle mode or listening to albums in order. When I want to be able to hear the titles of songs I have, I put them in the Book Port. I find I use both of these machines for different things. I definitely recommend the shuffle for a pocket-sized music library. But I use my BP for reading. Angie