Playlist handling will be improved in Panucci 0.4, and nikosapi is working on that: http://nikosapi.org/git/panucci/

A workaround for 0.3.x that you might or might not like is to merge all that small files from the CDs into one big file. Look for "MP3 joiner", "MP3 merge tool", etc.. on Google.

If you are on Linux, install "wavbreaker", which includes a tool called "wavmerge". You can then rip your CDs using cdparanoia to .wav files, join them using wavmerge and then convert them to .ogg using oggenc or to .mp3 using lame. Even on a Desktop computer I find it much more pleasant to have a slider for the whole show/audiobook/mix than to have to navigate through a playlist of many small files.

Splitting audiobooks in many small files is really just a relic of the way CDs worked back in the day (i.e. no direct "seeking" with a UI and a slider, but rather a very easy way to switch between tracks). Where in 1994 you had to remember "disc 4, track 7", today Panucci remembers "107 minutes and 39 seconds" for you

And no, not even the "chapters" of books are a reason to split audiobooks into multiple files. There are ID3v2 chapters for MP3 files: http://www.id3.org/id3v2-chapters-1.0 and I know that there is a way to have chapter marks for MP3 files. Haven't seen anything for .ogg yet. Chapters in files just lack the support in players and encoders most of the time, but the format is specified and some sources already use it.

Due to the fact that Panucci resumes files at the position that you stopped them, there are no problems with extremely long files (and I myself make use of that feature when listening to two-hour-long DJ mixes or podcasts which are also often longer than one hour).