anon – I’m in agreement with you. The science books are a tool to enhance your own powers of observation. They not only prevent you from needing to reinvent the wheel, but they also introduce you to things you could never have observed on your own with no instruction. I’d like to know how you would be able to predict where to point your telescope in the sky without understanding the science that is in the books. Without it, you would just be gazing more or less randomly.
If chemistry is your thing, like haifagirl, you’d have a lot of trouble studying the subject by observation alone and without instruction (whether formal or textbook).