Chaters at Brands Hatch

[Thundersports]

Went to Brands today to discover Chaters book shop is closing I had to ask Simon himself as I couldn't believe it.

[justracing]

Originally Posted by Thundersports

Went to Brands today to discover Chaters book shop is closing I had to ask Simon himself as I couldn't believe it.

Just seen this thread, Chaters have been there forever - maybe JP put the rent up! I've been a regular at Brands for more years than I care to remember and I can't remember the bookshop not being there.

[Rob29]

Think I can remember it opening maybe for 64 GP? Not been to Brands since A1GP in 2005.Only thing I recall being sad to see go was the startline grandstand

[Samoan Attorney]

Originally Posted by justracing

Just seen this thread, Chaters have been there forever - maybe JP put the rent up! I've been a regular at Brands for more years than I care to remember and I can't remember the bookshop not being there.

It is not the rent, sales have fallen both of books and especially DvDs, I was discussing this with the owner only last week and the shop is not profitable, simple as that. He has some thoughts to bringing a mobile shop to some of the bigger historic meetings.

[GORDON STREETER]

Originally Posted by Samoan Attorney

It is not the rent, sales have fallen both of books and especially DvDs, I was discussing this with the owner only last week and the shop is not profitable, simple as that. He has some thoughts to bringing a mobile shop to some of the bigger historic meetings.

A lot of bookshops have closed down with computers/tablets etc doing the damage and DVDs are becoming a thing of the past when you can put hours of films on a memory stick and plug it in the tele.
It's progress I'm afraid as you can get just about any information on line now and specialist books are in the minority !
I have still got stuff that cost thousands of pounds years ago SLR cameras/reel to reel tape recorders etc that were made obsolete by the Digi age.
One thing is we can still read a normal book I suppose !

[adam46]

No!

That shop was one of favourite parts of a Brands visit. Sad to see it go.

[Tim Falce]

Originally Posted by GORDON STREETER

A
One thing is we can still read a normal book I suppose !

Nope, I bought Susi a Kindle and I've not had to suffer another printed book coming into the house in over two years. The trouble is it's registered in my name and I now pick up the tab for all her books.

[Samoan Attorney]

Originally Posted by GORDON STREETER

A lot of bookshops have closed down with computers/tablets etc doing the damage and DVDs are becoming a thing of the past when you can put hours of films on a memory stick and plug it in the tele.
It's progress I'm afraid as you can get just about any information on line now and specialist books are in the minority !
I have still got stuff that cost thousands of pounds years ago SLR cameras/reel to reel tape recorders etc that were made obsolete by the Digi age.
One thing is we can still read a normal book I suppose !

Gordon not wishing to contradict your observations which are, for the most part, spot on. However the internet has a few issues too, particularly if one goes back a few years.

Recently I was writing a series of pieces for my blog about some of the races in the ALMS during the first three seasons. 1999 and 2000 no problem as I have the yearbooks but by 2001 and 2002 Don had decided that even he could not afford to burn through the cash like he been doing. So trying to find reports of what actually happened as opposed to relying on my increasingly fuzzy memory is actually very difficult.

Motorsport.com's archives are a bit of a mess since their relaunch, SpeedTV.com has vanished, DailySportsCar.com was launched in 2002 but all the posts from that year were lost when a server that was backed up failed and then we discovered no backup!

The official site of both the race and Series are long gone, as are many of those who took part, the whole thing turned into a real detective excercise, I got there in the end.

The other problem is that not everything you read on the internet can be trusted. Books are not dead yet................

[GORDON STREETER]

Originally Posted by Samoan Attorney

The other problem is that not everything you read on the internet can be trusted. Books are not dead yet................

And it's a good thing that they are not !
Al I was pointing out was that is the way things are going, years ago I seem to remember people talking about the "paperless office" that never happened and I think that if there was ever a nuclear war then a lot of digi stuff on flash drives/hard drives and cards would be wiped so a lot of history would disappear along with a lot of people !!!
Also we don't know the life of digi recorded stuff as it hasn't been with us for as many years as books have.
I would agree on some of the stuff on the internet (or not) is not the best and even Wiki is made up from subscribers who can have their own slant on things, generally though you can get a good idea if you delve enough into different sites.