Wow, thanks everybody for the feedback and advice!

I went to the temple yesterday with my friend and it was unfortunately closed due to the massive ice storm here in Toronto. It's open every day of the year, including holidays but it was closed yesterday However, we were able to explore some parts of it and it was gorgeous; just the structure of the temple (it's a really massive temple) and the statues of Buddha and the different Gods were so interesting.

Once the power comes back and the library opens, I'll definitely check out the books you guys recommended and I'm hoping to drag my mom to a free meditation class in the area this Friday. I do have one question though. How did you guys actually learn to live by the ways of Buddhism? Like it's easy to read the quotes and stuff and be inspired by it but it's challenging to actually follow the ways and live by it.