A Ship of Thought, How Books Carry the Human Soul by Nancy LeavittThese texts by Emily Dickinson and Theodore Parker succinctly express the manner in which books and reading enrich our lives and broaden our horizons. Emily Dickinson text reprinted by permission of the publishers and the Trustees of Amherst College from The Poems of Emily Dickinson, Thomas H. Johnson, ed., Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard UNiversity Press, Copyright 1951, 1955, 1979, 1983 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College.