# Remodeling shows and bookcases **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 6, 2026, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remodeling-shows-and-bookcases/1030658 "2026-06-06T01:13:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2026, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remodeling-shows-and-bookcases/1030658/21 "2026-06-08T21:04:17Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > People will end up looking at the titles instead of looking at the house. Well, that’s fair. Odds are I’d find something I’d want to buy from the staging company, and all discussion of buying the house would be tabled while I dealt with the issue of the book. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2026, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remodeling-shows-and-bookcases/1030658/22 "2026-06-08T21:36:42Z")
If all they want is a bland backdrop, they should get some of those watercolor blotchy beige canvases that photographers use for the backgrounds of portraits. Books with spines in are even more distracting than books with spines out. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2026, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remodeling-shows-and-bookcases/1030658/23 "2026-06-08T22:49:54Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > I’ve noticed that, if there is a book on display that is turned face-on to the camera, it is invariably the speaker’s own book. Yes, one of the tackiest things you’ll see on TV. And that’s saying a lot ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2026, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remodeling-shows-and-bookcases/1030658/24 "2026-06-09T05:46:16Z")
The self-service library bookstore I volunteer at sometimes gets inquiries from people who want things like this, so I get it. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2026, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remodeling-shows-and-bookcases/1030658/25 "2026-06-10T21:48:13Z")
I just stumbled across this and it answers the question with authority! [When You See Books As Distractions, You Need To Reprioritize](https://notalwaysright.com/when-you-see-books-as-distractions-you-need-to-reprioritize/156994/) > _(A friend and I walk into a large, popular furniture warehouse, looking for a bookshelf.)_ > > **Me:** “Look, the books are shelved backward!” > > **Friend:** “That’s weird!” > > **Me:** “Don’t know how that could happen.” _\*picks up some books, which are mainly old Readers Digest collections\*_ > > **Friend:** “Must be a mistake.” > > _(I start turning books with the spine out; my friend takes the next shelf and does the same.)_ > > **Employee:** “Excuse me, but I’m the designer here, and I need you to stop doing that.” > > **Me:** “We just noticed these books were backward.” > > **Employee:** “We do that on purpose. This way we don’t have to match colors.” > > **Me:** “I assumed someone just shoved them on… probably someone who doesn’t read…” > > **Employee:** “It’s part of the design. I don’t want the books to distract from the furniture.” > > **Me:** “I can’t see the furniture because the books are so weird. But sorry for interfering!” > > _(My friend and I left, giggling like schoolgirls.)_ ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2026, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remodeling-shows-and-bookcases/1030658/26 "2026-06-11T00:44:50Z")
Every IKEA I’ve been to has multiple copies of the same few obscure books. I presume this doesn’t detract from the looking-at-the-shelving experience. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2026, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remodeling-shows-and-bookcases/1030658/27 "2026-06-11T20:24:47Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > **Employee:** “It’s part of the design. I don’t want the books to distract from the furniture.” If all it takes to distract from your design is book-spines, then your design is pretty feeble. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2026, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remodeling-shows-and-bookcases/1030658/28 "2026-06-11T20:43:09Z")
If all it takes to distract someone is the paper edge of a couple of books, they have the attention of a gnat. It’s like throwing unshined shoes in front of a leprechaun. Home staging is, by and large, a dumb expensive ordeal that turns the interior of a house into a Potemkin facade designed to give the viewer a chance to fill in the blanks of how _they_ would live in that space, not how _the residents_ currently live in that space. You may be obsessing about the backwards books, but you’re not going to notice that the bedroom sure feels big, likely because there isn’t a dresser in it, the curtains oddly start 4 inches below the ceiling, and there are 14 mirrors everywhere. All of it is dumb and impractical, but apparently it works. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2026, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remodeling-shows-and-bookcases/1030658/29 "2026-06-11T20:46:46Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > You may be obsessing about the backwards books, but you’re not going to notice that the bedroom sure feels big Right; if I’m obsessing over the illiterate books, I won’t notice how big the room feels. I also won’t notice the tricks they used to accomplish that, but it doesn’t matter if I don’t notice the bigness. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2026, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remodeling-shows-and-bookcases/1030658/30 "2026-06-11T20:48:34Z")
What’s an illiterate book? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2026, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remodeling-shows-and-bookcases/1030658/31 "2026-06-11T20:57:08Z")
One set up in a way that only an illiterate person would do. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2026, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remodeling-shows-and-bookcases/1030658/32 "2026-06-12T00:14:20Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > If all it takes to distract from your design is book-spines, then your design is pretty feeble. > [@Munch](#): > > If all it takes to distract someone is the paper edge of a couple of books, they have the attention of a gnat. Haven’t you guys been reading this thread? Put a book in front of Dopers and the entire world melts away. They see nothing else, lose all sense, reason, and motivation, and wander out dazed, their wants and needs forgotten, muttering b o o o k s, b o o o k s. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2026, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remodeling-shows-and-bookcases/1030658/33 "2026-06-12T03:47:49Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > One set up in a way that only an illiterate person would do. You’ve already been told the reason for why this happens and it has nothing to do with illiteracy. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2026, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remodeling-shows-and-bookcases/1030658/34 "2026-06-12T12:35:02Z")
I’ve already been told the reason for it, and it’s one that would make no sense to a literate person. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2026, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remodeling-shows-and-bookcases/1030658/35 "2026-06-12T20:31:45Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Haven’t you guys been reading this thread? Put a book in front of Dopers and the entire world melts away. They see nothing else, lose all sense, reason, and motivation, and wander out dazed, their wants and needs forgotten, muttering b o o o k s, b o o o k s. You make a decent point. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2026, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remodeling-shows-and-bookcases/1030658/36 "2026-06-13T18:10:21Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > Home staging is, by and large, a dumb expensive ordeal that turns the interior of a house into a Potemkin facade designed to give the viewer a chance to fill in the blanks of how _they_ would live in that space, not how _the residents_ currently live in that space. It might also be to protect the homeowners from themselves. When we were buying our house, 30 years ago, it was more of a buyer’s market in California. Yet several of the houses we looked at were disasters. Holes in the wall, clothes all over the place, dirty. Some staging might have made us take a second look at them. I don’t remember which way their books were, though. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remodeling-shows-and-bookcases/1030658.md?page=1)