I bought a book-style case from ab sutton.

when i received the case, i was disappointed b/c it felt like the snap was a little tight around my ipod mini and the bottom of the case was covered so I have to take it out of the case in order to recharge it.

But after a few minutes of feeling the leather and noticing how beautiful the whole case was, I decided to give it a shot.

Now, a week later, the only thing that bugs me is having to take it out of the case to recharge it.

The leather softened up a bit and when i snap the ipod to close it, it feels natural. At the very beginning I needed two hands to snap-close the case, but after a little bit I can very deftly snap the case open and closed with just one easy motion using my left hand. After rummaging through the packaging, I came across a little card that explained that the leather needed some time to stretch a bit and to break-in a little (or something like that I don't remember the exact wording). After reading this, I sort of felt like a dummy noob.

the interior of the case is a silk lining which doesn't feel quite like silk but is still very soft and lets you know that this lining will pamper your ipod in the finest manner in which you want your ipod to be pampered.

the case also has this clear plastic covering for your screen, fairly typical protection. The clickwheel is not covered at all, so i used the Fellowes WriteRight clear plastic covering on the clickwheel to protect it from my icky thumb and general exposure to the elements.

One last detail, the opening for the hold slider needs to be open just two or three hairs wider. It's easy to close the hold state but it requires a little more attention and a fingernail to take it out of hold which can be annoying when you want to skip past a song on your playlist.

so to sum it up, this case is the kind that is best appreciated after a week of use.

thanks for the review!
do you have any pictures of the one you purchased?
they show such a large variety of colors on the website, but you don't really get to see them in action!

i'll try to get a picture up later, but if you visit the site, you'll see that there are probably millions of possible combinations of styles and color/pattern combinations. and since im a big pansy i chose the most conservative style ;-)

also i forgot to mention that ordering the case is a little wonky. you have to send them this e.mail in this certain way they want it b/c apparently they don't feel like setting up an html form to make ordering easier.

it didn't really bother me but at first I was sort of like, "what kind of low-budget operation is this". but whatever, i feel like the people who handmade my ipod mini case cover were the flaky artists who insist on doing things their own way but ultimately deliver something unique and personalized. and let's face it, we all love our ipods so damn much that we're all trying very hard to protect it and to personalize it because we can safely extend our personality around it... or at least i can ;-)

but yeah i'll try to get a pic up later.