Is it true that learning Martial Arts from books isn't a good thing?

I was beginning to learn Tai Chi, but since I'm thousands of miles away from America with not much money, I thought I could go to a couple of libraries to learn about it's history and some of the techniques.

Is it a good or bad thing to learn martial arts from books. Is it better to learn everything about that martial art from an instructor?
Thanks Benji. It did take me 5 years to get a black belt in Judo. But, in those 5 years, I spent 2 years alone before I joined the camp.
 
Its better to learn from an instructor because you have a visual of how it looks like.
 
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