During his presentation at the Peaceful Communities Forum in October, Stephen identified books and reading as one of the ten components key to achieving a peaceful community.

So is Peterborough a community that values books and reading?

That's the question that was put to the managers of two of Peterborough's largest bookstores.

While they agreed that the community is largely a peaceful one, Anne Heuft, co-owner of Titles Bookstore, and Tom Mercer, general manager of Chapters Bookstore, did not concur that this was because the community treasures books.

"I'm going to have people saying to me, 'why did you say that?'" says Anne with a laugh, who nevertheless stands firm in her belief that Peterborough community-members in general do not hold books and reading in the esteem that they could.

"I'm not sure it's just Peterborough," she adds. "But I think there's a lot of price-resistance to books, especially hard-cover children's books."

"I think it's important for kids to own some books," she explains. "It's also important to go to the library, and it's important to own some. Kids read and reread the books they like, even when get up into the older years. It's hard for them to do that if they don't own them."

She says people forget that children will read their books hundreds of times, thereby completing justifying the higher cost.

When asked the same question, Tom of Chapters replies without hesitation that he believes Peterborough is a community that treasures books and reading.

He suggests that this has an impact on tolerance and peace in the community because "it educates people to a higher degree."

Anne thinks reading can impact on peace simply because the activity itself is peaceful.

"If you're reading, you're not playing violent video games or watching something violent on TV, you're doing a very peaceful-oriented activity," she says. "…you're sitting very quietly…"

Do people need to read particular kinds of books in order for this to have an impact on tolerance? Or is the most important thing that they're reading a book, whether it's something by Stephen King or Homer?

"I think there should be a good mix of literature," says Anne. "There certainly are books that speak about peace and tolerance. But I think that people need to read a wide range of books. That in itself probably makes people more tolerable and understanding, if you're reading everything."

Tom agrees. "Reading anything will definitely help," he says. "For sure, it gives you a wider scope of things. Certain types of books, I guess, would have an impact as well."

Both agree that reading items on the Internet does not have the same peaceful effect as reading a book.

"Sure, it's useful for information," says Anne. "But it's not the same as sitting quietly with a book.

Tom concurs. "Unless it's a really credited site," he says.

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