I've just encoded the Hobbit from CD, and I ended up doing it as 64 kbit VBR, Mono. This seemed to produce acceptable results, with very small files - I'm happy with the end result, although the CD's are just talking, with few musical/background effects.

Paul.
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Paul Haigh, Reg. 4120 (mk1) 6GB, Blue, 00254 (mk2) 12GB, Red, 00357