@Satsuma@glitch.cat.family It's just sort of how it's done here? Particularly at this end of the market (this is a really posh part of Sydney), where people tend to have the means to fully move into a new place and rent staging furniture for the sale of their old one.

The theory behind having the books turned around specifically is because it projects an air of "hey wouldn't you like to be the sort of fancy classy person with a huge bookshelf" but also leaves exactly what those books are a blank canvas for you to project your own taste onto. Same reason why all the art and furniture (and the Aesop hand soap in the bathroom, lol) is that kinda generic "market-reflected taste" that projects wealth without having a personality per se. It's supposed to get you to think about your stuff (and thus, you) in the space, not play detective on the previous occupant.

(Whether it works or not… dunno, lol. But that's the reason.)