If you're like me, you've occasionally wished that you could leave this world behind for the universe between the covers of a favorite book. And while there isn't much hope for that, it is possible to bring the world of a book to life in the most mundane and wonderful of ways: on a T-shirt.

One enterprising anti-abuse organization, Protect.org, has gotten the OK from Nick Hornby, Chuck Klosterman, Andrew Vachss, Dennis Lehane and other authors to create T-shirts for the fictional establishments from their novels. You may not be able to shop at Championship Vinyl, but you can now wear its shirt.



The T-shirts -- which they call Novel-Tees -- are all wonderful, but I wish there were more. For no particular reason, my thoughts turn to Dickens. That's my imaginary T-shirt for the law firm from "Bleak House," Jarndyce & Jarndyce. If I were a more gifted graphic artist, I'd have tried to create others ... for, say, the Fagan School for Boys or Miss Havisham's Bridal Shop.



What about you -- what novelistic T-shirts would you like to see?



-- Carolyn Kellogg

