A proverb says, "seeing is believing", meaning to see something for oneself is more reliable than to hear about it from others. In other words, experience is more important than reading books. For example, to speak English, to read English novels, and to watch English programs on TV have more practical value than to study English grammar using books. However, there are some things that are difficult for today's Japanese people to experience directly. For example, to suffer from a terrible war, and being victims of racism like African American had experienced. Books help us understand them and be conscious about them.

First, Japanese in our generation have not experienced wars before, and we do not know that war is so terrible that we should object them. Instead of experiencing them, books can tell us about them. For example, Hemingway's "The Sun also Rise" describes the life of war victims who could not adjust to the ordinary life after the war even though they had won the war. The hero became an impotent after the war not only physically but also psychologically. Hemingway tells us how badly wars injured people. Therefore, books are useful to realize that wars, which we can not experience, do considerable harm to human life.

Second, books tell us about racism that we are not so sensitive to, and they help us know that it has made a frightening history of armed conflicts. "To Kill a Mockingbird" written by Harper Lee shows us how unfairly African Americans were treated in U.S.A, and how difficult for the white people who opposed racism, struggle against the white people who supported racism. Moreover, "Autobiography of Malcolm X" presents racism brought about an extreme idea like "white people are devil", and the conflict between white people and African Americans developed terribly. We can learn from these books that should be avoided.

In conclusion, although experience is very important, there are some things we can not experience. For example, wars and racism are difficult for Japanese in our generation to experience. We can learn these things through books. Therefore I conclude that what we can experience is limited, while we can learn from books an unlimited variety of things. Books are not less important than experience in our lives.