A 300-page book can take 8 1/2 to 9 hours on tape, she says, and a 500-page book from 18 to 19 hours. Often she hears from listeners who say they couldn't turn a book off, even once they pulled up to the office or home. "They sit in the car, listening to the end of the chapter," Roche says.
All categories sell well, she says, but memoirs read by the author are particularly popular. Roche recently listened to "Comfort Me With Apples" by Ruth Reichl. "It was as if I had the most entertaining passenger in the car," she says.
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One of the audio companies, Recorded Books LLC, was started in 1979 by a traveling salesman named Henry Trentman. He lived in Maryland, he loved books, and he traveled from South Carolina to New England. Tiring of listening to the radio, he posted a sign at Arena Stage, seeking an actor willing to read a book, which he would tape. Frank Muller responded, and recorded "The Sea Wolf" by Jack London, Trentman's first production.
"As commuting times increased," says John Alexander, director of marketing, "so did listeners." Today, the company remains in Prince Frederick, Md., owned by Haights Cross Communications Inc., and introduces 600 titles a year, Alexander says.
Trentman came up with his idea as commutes were increasing and technology -- in his time the eight-track was giving way to the cassette -- was expanding.
Alan Pisarski, who lives in Fairfax County and is writing his third "Commuting in America" book, observes that other technology has sped along at the side of commuters as well, particularly the cell phone.
When they were first marketed, he points out, many people bought prepaid plans and kept the cell phone in the car, in case of a breakdown or other emergency. "For $15 a month, you could buy a lot of security," he says. At first those phones sat, silent, awaiting an emergency. Then, commuters began to pick them up, calling home to say they were late, check on the kids, ask how the homework was going. It wasn't long before they got out of the car and into the hands of the kids, who grew up to talk while driving. The rest is cell phone history.
Pisarski finds the study of commuters endlessly fascinating -- he calls it the collision of demographics and geography.
Best of all, he does it all at home.
