[This is the final entry in our "I Loved This Book When..." series. To read past installments of this series or any other, check out our Special Features page. Later in the year we'll be bringing you a new series, "The Best Books of 2010".]

The purpose of this series is to describe books loved at a certain point in a reader’s life, but there’s one book I’ve fallen for many, many times.  It’s called Anagrams, by Lorrie Moore, and here’s a sampling of occasions when you’ll want to crack it open.

1. When you’re feeling schizophrenic.

Anagrams concerns the lives of Benna, a nightclub singer, Gerard, a wimpy and admiring neighbor, and Eleanor, a witty friend.  Except for when Gerard is a noncommittal stud.  Or when Eleanor is trashy and selling crates of halter tops.  Or when Benna is actually an aerobics instructor for old people.  Or a first grade teacher.  Or cracking a bottle of ketchup over her best friend’s skull.

Across five short stories Moore plays with three characters’ lives, switching their tastes and personalities like somebody trying on shirts.  They are anagrams of one another. What happens, the book seems to ask, When a character goes from brassy to meek?  What happens when Benna gets angry, or even angrier than that?  Are these really different characters we’re talking about, or don’t we all contain many lives and longings?

2. When you’re planning a yard sale.

Some items you can buy at Benna and Gerard and Eleanor’s: foam rubber curlers with hairs stuck in them, two bags of fiberglass insulation, three seamed and greasy juice glasses, and an opened box of Frost ‘N Tip for Brunettes Only with two coffee cup rings on the front.

3. When you’re drinking beer for breakfast.

Benna does it, as does Gerard.  You’ll have company. …
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