As we move closer to the anniversary of James Thurber’s birthday — he was born December 8, 1894 — I’ve been spending a little more time hanging out with our Thurber books. Here’s a great addition to any Thurber collection, published in 1936 by Blue Ribbon Books (a New York City publishing house once located at 386 Fourth Avenue). As you can tell by the cover, it combines Thurber’s masterpiece, My Life and Hard Times (originally published by Harper & Brothers in 1933) with The Owl in the Attic (originally published by Harper & Brothers in 1931). I’m tempted to say that if you have this book and the Thurber Carnival that’s all the Thurber you’ll ever need. I’d say it, but it would be a dumb thing to say.