What is it about the corner?

During the past three weeks, since preschool let out, we've had three sets of visitors comprising four adults and two children. Two of the adults had never been here before.

Socializing doesn't come easy for me, but there are play dates and social obligations: "So and so REALLY wants to meet you!" I think to myself "No, he really doesn't, but you've been very kind over the years, so by all means, haul him over and I'll feed you." I try. Hopefully the experience isn't too ghastly for people.


I've grown okay with visitors seeing this:




They usually look around with appalled expressions for a few minutes, saying nothing. Maybe it's because of the proximity to the kitchen, and maybe it's because it looks as though a yard sale threw up. Yes, there are piles. An embroidery machine which needs a new home, fifty pounds of plaster on the floor, a bucket of cement, a pile of bread tabs, paints, a bottle of hair.

It's untidy and it's okay. It's a work space. You know the cleaning exercise we go through before visitors come over, the swabbing of toilets and the sweeping? I'm tired of cleaning this area up and pretending that it stays tidy.

Besides, I figure that if it's horrible or scandalous, people will have something to chat about on the way home.

I'm also okay with them seeing these:






Visitor: "Have you been to Bali?"
Me: "No."


and this:



People are always fascinated and perhaps horrified by the leg lamp. "Is it a cast of your leg?" one visitor asked. No. No, it isn't. "Did you … go into a store and buy that?" another visitor inquired. No. I ordered it online. There are a couple of companies which make them.

The question "why" is usually left unasked. As in "Why did you buy this? Why do you have it in your home?" To put them out of some of their misery, I usually volunteer that ANYONE can have a tasteful home, but it's rare to find an object as unabashedly tacky as this one. It really is quite a hideous lamp, and I have great affection for it.

However, the thing I don't understand is this:



People are interested in the books. I get that. If I visited a house full of books, I'd certainly want to check out the collection. However, visitors always, always, always drift to the corner. The same place. The same 2-3 columns of books.

From Anecdotally Yours

From Anecdotally Yours

From Anecdotally Yours

(By the way; these are clickable, in case you also feel the urge to drift to the corner and stare.)

Why? Why the corner? Do books bring on some primitive denning impulse?

Socializing is such a mysterious activity.