Which is more important in life, knowledge from the books you read, or personal experience you gain in reality? The answer may vary from person to person. The young, educated may emphasize the former, and the old may stress the later. But in my opinion, they are of the same importance.
Experience is priceless. How to become an efficient secretary? How to prepare for your first child to come into the world? There is so much experience we need in careers, in life and even in academic studies. It helps one deal with the problems with ease and confidence. Especially activities and to accumulate experience of different kinds is more crucial.
Experience, however, is limited in terms of time and space. For one thing, it is impossible for anyone to experience all the important events and meet all the famous people. For another, as the speed with which skills are obsolete and new problems crop up is unprecedented because of the fast development of society, experience is far less adequate. Depending too much on it only leads to narrow-mindedness and prejudice.
One way to compensate for it is to read books. Books of various kinds can bring us almost unlimited additional experience. From books you can not only trace back to the wisdom of our antecedents, but keep up with the latest developments of science and technology. To be sure, it's secondhand experience. But it is the ideal supplement to our own limited experience. Few of us can travel around the world, or live long beyond one hundred years, but all of us can live many lives by reading books.
Both book knowledge and personal experience are essential. While experience makes one more resourceful, book knowledge makes one more learned.