Something I can have, something I must have

I can have: Someone somewhere (was it Amazon?) told me that Philip Pullman's Once Upon a Time in the North would not be available until later this month, but I actually have a copy right now in my hot little hands. What a pleasure! (I haven't actually opened it yet...I have a big road trip coming up and I'm saving it for bedtime reading on the road.)

I must have: Today I learned that Neil Gaiman has written an introduction to one of my favorite childhood books, The Thirteen Clocks, by James Thurber. My brothers and sister and I grew up parroting lines like "He breaks up minstrels in his soup, like crackers" and "He'll slit you from your guggle to your zatch." I think I have a battered old copy, but a new one--with illustrations by Marc Simont, whose illustrations for Thurber's Many Moons are a complete delight, and introduction by Gaiman--is going on the wish list right now.