▶ Your Answer: Some people may argue that it is better to gain knowledge from experience than books. However, I staunchly believe that books are an incomparable source of gaining knowledge in that it is much more efficient to obtain knowledge from books than experience, and reading books can give a person knowledge that is related to a variety of different fields of human life.
First of all, reading books is a more efficient way of gaining knowledge. To explain, people can save their time and money that would be spent on physical experience by reading books to gain the same knowledge which experience may also give them. For example, traveling abroad takes a huge amount of expense and inconvenient procedures. An archaeologist, who wants to visit a place of historic interest in another country, may have to endure a great amount of money of carrying bulky and expensive equipment for research and time consumed in traveling abroad. However, books can provide abundant knowledge and valuable information about the historic place without any inconvenient experience. It only takes the archaeologist a little time finding books in library. Moreover, all the knowledge that is written in a book may be an advice from the writer who already experienced similar situation that a reader is confronting. Accordingly, one can prevent bad results of experience from happening in advance by learning what is to come from books.
In addition, people can gain knowledge about a variety of different fields. Experiences that one can meet with are usually limited to one’s background and position in society. Thus, if people obtained knowledge only from experience and neglected books, the possibility that they are possessed by stereotypes might be high. This is because they do not have enough experience of dealing with others’ knowledge that is different from theirs. On the contrary, as books contain knowledge written by a lot of different writers from various fields and distinct positions, it provides knowledge which can never be obtained merely from experience. To give a simple example of this, it is hard for men to know how women feel in a certain situation in that it is impossible for them to experience a life as a woman. However, reading books of women writers can be a convenient and efficient way to know what it feels like to be a woman. In this respect, books may prevent people from being influenced by their prejudices.
In conclusion, without a doubt, I strongly believe that knowledge gained from books is more valuable than that from experience. The underlying logic behind my opinions is that knowledge from books can prevent people from being obsessed with stereotypes, and it also covers the fields that people may not be able to deal with in their own lives. All in all, the undeniable importance of knowledge from books cannot be underestimated. |