Why Are Books Always Flipped Backwards on the Shelves on HGTV TV Shows? Reason Revealed!

Erin Napier is cracking a longtime HGTV mystery!

The Home Town renovation star recently addressed the reasoning behind something that’s confused viewers: books are displayed flipped backwards on shelves, with the pages facing outward instead of the spines.

In a recent episode of Home Town, the Napiers renovated a century-old house in Laurel, Mississippi to turn it into the new home for the town’s Unlimited Dreams Christian Learning Center.

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On an accompanying Instagram post, viewers noted that the home featured a bookshelf in which the books’ spines faced outward.

“This may be the first time you haven’t turned all the books around, hiding the spines,” one person commented.

“I’m guessing they do that for copyright reasons…?” another fan wrote. “Either way, yes, it’s cool to see the actual books!”

Erin responded in the comments “Somehow, we got permission from the legal folks!”

This isn’t the first time an HGTV star addressed the flipped books.

HGTV’s Hidden Potential and Help! I Wrecked My House host Jasmine Roth has also spoken out about it in the past: “It’s a really simple answer: copyright! That’s right, this isn’t some breakthrough of a design trick. … It’s because the network would have to get copyright clearance from every single title in order to display them. And that’s not very realistic, considering each design could have at least 10 books in them!”

Betsy Ayala, former senior vice president of production and development for HGTV, previously spoke to HGTV Insider and also pointed out copyright issues, but added that homeowners on the network might “prefer not to be judged by the books they own.”

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