Is traveling more important than reading books in order to understand the world?
By coly20032003
@coly20032003 (428)
China
December 4, 2008 10:10am CST
Do you know the most popular pastime in the world is reading?Now there are various kinds of books avaliable and we can learn lots of things from them.Books become the main source of knowledge we obtain.There are about three advantages in reading as follows:
First,books provide us with various aspects of knowledge.We can learn physics,chemistry,mathematics and philosophy etc. from books.These are all necessary for us.Without the scientific knowledge,a person will probably not know how to operate a washing machine and how to use a computer.Without all this knowledge,a person can't live a better life in the modern world.
Second,reading makes us understand the world more.If we have one month and one thoussand dollars, we can only travel to one or two places to learn how people live there.But how many books can we buy with the money and how many books can we finish in one month?All these books may contain information about dozens of places, we can learn more by reading than by traveling.
Third, reading is the most romantic and the safest kind of traveling.By reading,we can travel to the north pole without having to endure the freezing cold;we can also go to the desert without having to fear the threat of thirst.We can also go back to the ancient times to have a look at the people's life without any difficulty.
Of course,traveling gives us direct experiences.It's much more exciting and active than reading.It's necessary for a person to expand his horizon.When you have a chance or enough money and time, you can travel around the world,it will make your life more pleasant and make you have a deep understanding about the people and the world.
But as studens, we don't have enough time and money to travel around;and studying is the most important thing for us to do.So why not read as many books as possible when we are young?This way we can get enough knowledge to serve the people and the society better.Anyway we will have enough chances to travel later.
2 people like this
7 responses
@aisaellis22 (6445)
• United States
4 Dec 08
I am a reader too and I admit I learned a lot from the book. But if you compared reading to travelling in learning such place, travelling there or going to that place is advisable. I still believe in the sayiing "learning by doing" You will not truly understand it unless you experience it.
1 person likes this
@jambi462 (4576)
• United States
4 Dec 08
I would say yes but I wouldn't throw out books altogether. I do believe that the best way to learn is to do, so yes learning about the world would be the easiest by traveling. Books also have some really good information in them though as well. So don't throw out books altogether but I'm sure you will learn a bunch of cool stuff traveling.
1 person likes this
@maximax8 (31053)
• United Kingdom
10 Dec 08
Traveling is my top hobby so I do that when I can and reading is something that I adore and I do it every day. I have many books of my own and I borrow books from my local library. Reading can be informative or it can be entertaining. A book can take me with it away from my life for a couple of hours and be really enjoyed. These days the Internet is as popular as books. I studied English Literature and did Teacher Training as well. I got to read so many delightful books during my university days. I still traveled in those days. I got flight to Prague and traveled around Eastern Europe by train. I went on holiday to Kenya and went off in the middle of it on the train to Nairobi. Then I went on a 5 day safari to the Masai Mara and Lake Nakaru. I got a flight to Tel Aviv so I could explore Israel and Jordan. Nowadays students have a difficult time financially but in my student days we had our course paid for, a grant and just tiny student loan. I had done some amazing things like snorkeled with small sharks, climbed up mountains and have flown over the pyramids. Travel guide books make superb reading and then in the future there will be lots of ideas for traveling.
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@Porcospino (31366)
• Denmark
5 Dec 08
I love books and I think that you can learn lot from them, but travelling provides you with a different kind of knowledge. In my experience books and travelling is the ideal combination. Reading about a country before you go there as a tourist can make things a lot easier. As a traveler you get a firsthand knowledge about the country, and afterwards when you read books the places where you've been, your own experiences will help you understand those books on a deeper level, because you are able to relate to the things you read in the books. The best way for me to learn is to read about something, try it and then read about it again.
When you read a book about a certain country, you will get knowlegde about that country, but you didn't write the book, someone else did, and a book describes things seen through the eyes of the person who wrote it. There is a big difference between experiencing thing yourself and reading about other people's experiences.
I think my conclusion is that reading is indispensable but so is travelling.
1 person likes this
@GADHISUNU (2162)
• India
6 Dec 08
I am really happy to read that read is the most reported pastime. It is really nice to hear that people still love reading even after the advent of the Internet when one can hangout with he computer for hours on end seeing more wonderful things in greater combination of pictures videos and text; the present generation is not high on reading is my observation. each generation has its own wways of coping with their world. If books are one short route to a lot people condensed experiences which if you were to have yourself would take you lifetimes. That is where the books fit in.
But traveling is like entering the laboratory of life. A laboratory is not the real world in its total sense. But it does have a "piece of the world". Likewise traveling is a kind of simulating the experiencing of the real world. A travelogue for instance would let you combine reading with "traveling" within the cozy comfort of your own home.You can have the twin pleasures of reading and traveling on zero budget!
Now, how is traveling a lab experience? You meet people. You get to see how tey behave. If you give some thought to it you could understand the underlying commonality in human nature across world cultures. You could have a practical introduction to history. If you are a student I understand you wouldn't be having much money to spend on travel; then you make do with one or two educational tours to grab as much experience as you an, wait your turn to be a professional where you could be traveling lots- that is if you like the experience travels brings to life.
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@missparanoia (85)
• Philippines
6 Dec 08
I think books get out dated, you read about such place as being great and all but when you get there you get disappointed because it's not what you read about and expected, unless you want the history of the place. But if you can't travel books would be great, it enhances imagination.
@pkc3000 (1266)
• India
4 Dec 08
Coly20032003 I have gone through your review really it is a nice review. In my opinion travelling plays pivotal role for the students to know the place to ascertain the facts on the spot, but at the same time we can not deny the theoretical knowledge which is also needed. Both are important to get good result.
pkc3000
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