The Chilliwack Progress from Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada • Page 27

THE CHILLIWACK PROGRESS, FridayMarch 3, 2000 27 The Progress NTERT FT "KIT Jessica Peters Direct line: 702-5541 editor theprogress.com I The Arts NOTEBOOK i j3t Despite the Canadian proliferation of big box bookstores like Chapters, Amber Short and her father David are making a world-wide success out of their small, local bookstore The Bookman. Jenna Hauck Progress At the movies PARAMOUNT THEATRE: THE NEXT BEST THING: Nightly 7:00 9:15 Sun. matinees: 1:15 3:15 REINDEER GAMES: Nightly 7:15 9:30 Sat, Sun. matinees: 1:15 3:30 COTTONWOOD 4 THEATRE: WHAT PLANET ARE YOU Nightly 7:20 9:30 MY DOG SKIP: Nightly 7:00 49:00 Sun. matinees: 1:30 THE TIGGER MOVIE: Nightly 6:30 Sun.

matinees: 1:40 THE BEACH: Nightly 7:10 HANGING UP: Nightly 9:35 Sun. matinees: 3:35 THE WHOLE NINE YARDS: Nightly 8:00 10:00 STUART LITTLE: Sun. matinees: 2:00 TOY STORY 2: Sun. matinees: 1:50 Wowing the people People of the River Pow Wow gets under way tonight at 7 p.m. with the grand entry in the Tzeachten Community Hall.

The sixth annual event runs all weekend and is hosted by the Skway First Nation. Events include traditional dancing, singing and drumming. "We are expecting many First Nations from throughout western North America," says Zack Cailing, coordinator. "We welcome everyone to attend this joyous and exciting event." The Tzeachten Community Hall is at 45855 Promontory Rd. in Sardis.

Information call 793-2245. Youthful colours Get ready for a showcase of the town's budding artists. Tomorrow is opening night for Chilliwack Senior Secondary's art show with the theme "If Youth Were a Painting, sculpture, sketches, photography and musical performances will be featured in the Downstairs Gallery and the Lounge at the Chilliwack Arts Centre at College and Henderson. The show runs until March 29 on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 1 to 4 p.m. Clubs, pubs and cafes Good Times: Housecat, Friday and Saturday Decades: Jen De Welde, 7:45 p.m.

JD's Lounge: helves Ml of dreams Local book store uniquely un-Chapters out of print so rapidly; usually in a year, or two years down the road. We benefit enormously." So the rumour that Chilliwack will be the next location for Chapters doesn't scare him. "I look forward to it," he says. "It means more for us. David's daughter Amber Short also looks forward to the store's future; she's helping usher it in by handling the Bookman's debut to book lovers around the world via the Internet.

Amber is seated at a computer down the hall and around the corner in a cramped office stacked floor-to-ceiling with plastic-wrapped books. They're a kind of test library; Amber is entering information on each one into an inventory databasa "My goal is to have the whole bookstore on computer," Amber explains. "But that's probably going to take me the rest of my life." nurse, he was anything but overconfident, he assures me. "I jumped into it with fear and trepidation. I was going from a very secure job to something entirely unknown.

I didn't know if I could do it. I was extremely nervous At some points I sweated blood." But he followed his dream, and what had been the Book Nook thrived. David gave it a new name, after a handle he picked up on book-buying trips around the Lower Mainland. would see me coming and say, 'It's the book I thought, 'What a great And he anticipates continuing to thrive despite the proliferation of big-box bookstores such as Chapters which have cut a swath through family-owned bookstores across the country. "We're not in the same ballpark; we don't compete, we complement," David explains.

"These days books go By Mark Falkenberg Staff Writer The Bookman can become a bad habit fast and when it does it doesn't take long for you to start taking on the store's inspiring smell of paperbacks and new varnish. But Chilliwack's world-class secondhand bookstore leaves a much deeper and lasting impression than just bookworm perfume. It's a small city of ideas, long rows of shelves spilling knowledge and dreams and human spirit. That small city will celebrate its tenth year in business this year, and owner David Short looks forward to many more. I'm talking to David on a very dreary March morning, but he sounds as charged and enthusiastic as if he had just taken his first plunge into the book businesSWet when he first started a decade back, ditching his career as a licensed practical Please turn to Book, Page 28.