The consistent design choice in HGTV’s hit program, “Home Town,” has had some fans scratching their heads. Eagle-eyed viewers have frequently spotted books placed backward on shelves in many of the renovated homes, with the spines facing inward. The question of this unusual design choice has circulated among fans, and now, the answer is here, straight from the source.
The reason for this book-placement peculiarity, according to Erin Napier, one of the show’s stars, is not an aesthetic quirk, but rather a practical matter involving copyright. Typically, a network like HGTV would need to get copyright clearance for each and every book title displayed on screen. This process can be extremely time-consuming and often difficult, involving numerous legal hurdles and potentially leading to content delays. The solution, therefore, was to simply turn the books around, hiding the spines and avoiding the need for such clearances, a kind of clever, practical workaround that has become a hallmark of the show’s design style.
Interestingly, however, there are exceptions to this rule. In an episode that aired January 5, 2025, the show featured a renovation for Laurel’s Unlimited Dreams Christian Learning Center. In this particular instance, the books were displayed with their spines facing outward, in the conventional manner. As Erin Napier explained, for this episode, the “legal folks” had granted special permission to display the books normally, an unusual exception that only highlights the general rule. This instance made it all the more clear that this was a considered decision and not simply a design preference.
The backward book trend is not just a workaround, though. Betsy Ayala, a former HGTV executive, has also gone on record, confirming that copyright is, in fact, the primary reason for the backward book trend in many such programs. Jasmine Roth, who has been the host of several HGTV programs, further explained that getting clearance for every individual book title that might appear in a program is simply not a realistic undertaking. This fact illustrates the need for the inventive solution employed on “Home Town” and others.