GIVE PAGES A GOOD LISTEN AUDIOBOOKS CHARMING COMMUTERS.

Byline: Lisa Mascaro Staff Writer

WOODLAND HILLS - For many traffic-weary commuters, ``The DaVinci Code'' is a real page-turner - even though their hands never leave the wheel.

The best seller by Dan Brown, along with Bill Clinton's autobiographical ``My Life'' and the new installment of ``The Godfather'' saga, are all recorded at Random House's new Books on Tape facility in Woodland Hills. There, actors bring the printed page alive for people who do their best reading by ear.

It's only fitting for the company that was started by a Southern Californian bored of his long commute, and in a city whose residents buy more audiobooks than anywhere else in the nation.

``If you're commuting two hours a day or more, when are you going to have time to read the book everyone's talking about?'' said Amanda D'Acierno, a spokeswoman for Random House's audio publishing group.

Commuters waste more than 90 hours a year - nearly four full days - sitting in Southern California's legendary gridlock, and Los Angeles commuters drive an average of one hour to work and home.

Many commuters say that snuggling up with a good book while behind the wheel can help them forget the stress and actually enjoy the drive.

``On those days when I have a SigAlert, it does help,'' said Laura Yamanaka, who commutes 50 miles one way between her Santa Clarita home and her job downtown.

``It stops me from getting angry,'' she added. ``If I do get stuck in traffic ... and you've gone one mile in 20 minutes, I'm not as cranky.''

Westside museum worker Aimee Chang said she started listening to audio books a decade ago on her grueling one-hour commute from Oakland to San Francisco. And she still pops in a book even though her daily drive from West Hollywood to Westwood is only 30 minutes.

``It's something to look forward to so the commute isn't something to dread,'' Chang said.

The Los Angeles Public Library has seen borrowing from its 65,000- audiobook collection rise to become the most popular lending in all of its branches.

``We can't keep the audiobooks on the shelves,'' spokesman Peter Persic said.

``Audiobooks have always been popular, but we're hearing from more and more people that they've discovered they're a great way for people to keep in touch with literature ... while they're driving.

``As people spend more and more time in their cars they're looking for something that can enrich that experience. The next best thing is definitely being able to listen to it in your car,'' he said.

The public library system adds 1,000 titles a year - 10,000 new books - and does a heavy trade in foreign-language books - Farsi, Spanish, Tagalog.

``It's really keeping people in the habit of reading and being connected with books and writing and literature,'' Persic said.

Books on Tape opened its Woodland Hills studio in August, a 7,100- square-foot facility on Burbank Boulevard, around the corner from its earlier home on Variel Street.

If traffic gave birth to the company, L.A.'s surplus of actors helped foster it into big business.

``The pursuit was initially - and still is - to find more and better narrators. That's why we're in Los Angeles,'' said Dan Musselman, executive producer of Books on Tape.

But don't go looking for any big-name celebrities dashing in and out of the Warner Center studio. Musselman says it's the lesser-known actors who tend to thrive as narrators - and are willing to sit for grueling, weeklong recording sessions.

It takes about two hours of recorded material to make one finished hour of the book. For the 300 books the studio plans to produce a year, it will record 4,000 hours of content.

For the studio's latest blockbuster release, ``The Godfather Returns,'' - a fourth installment in the Corleone family saga - it took eight days in the studio with narrator Scott Brick, a star in the audiobook world.

``It's this fine balance of staying out the way and bringing something to it,'' Musselman said about the readings. ``It's about getting inside the author's book and you let the author's words do their work.''

Audiobooks have been around for years - Books on Tape celebrated its 30th year in 2004 - and recordings on vinyl date back decades.

But the industry has enjoyed robust growth in recent years, officials said.

Sales increased by 5.1 percent from 2002 to 2003, now totaling some $800 million a year, according to the Audio Publishers Association.

While audiobooks have been popular at the gym and among some professions and pastimes, like gardening, the car has long been the top place for listening - be it on long road trips as the mileposts click by or on suburbanites' workday commutes.

``I think we all feel in the last couple of years public awareness and appreciation of audiobooks have been kicked up a notch,'' said Mary Beth Roche, president of the Audio Publishers Association.

``It's an industry, a section of the publishing industry, that has enjoyed steady and consistent growth year over year. We think this is due in large part to people's commutes are getting worse and worse.''

Lisa Mascaro, [phone]

lisa.mascaro(at)dailynews.com

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3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Actor Scott Brick of Sherman Oaks narrates an audiobook at the Books on Tape studio in Woodland Hills.

(2) Director Janet Stark of Atwater Village records Sherman Oaks actor Scott Brick's narration for an audiobook at Random House's Books on Tape studio in Woodland Hills.

(3) Dan Musselman, executive producer at Books on Tape, has made a number of audiobook versions of best sellers.

Evan Yee/Staff Photographer