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If a character is doing something they want to keep secret and are suddenly interrupted (perhaps by a knock on the door), they will often grab a book to make it appear that they were reading and not scheming against the villain. When they do, they will be holding the book upside-down when the door opens because they were too rushed to ensure they were holding it properly. It makes little sense since most people store their books oriented properly. (It makes more sense if the book was just lying around somewhere.)
For added comedy, the person who arrived may take the book and rotate it for the reader's benefit.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- In BECK, Koyuki and Maho were spending time together, thinking they were alone in the fishing hole. Cue Chiba and Taira's arrival. They then quickly clothed themselves while all sweaty along with forced expressions (Koyuki is reading a book upside down and Maho is wearing her shirt inside out.) Hilarity ensues.
- In Junjou Romantica, Hiro-san once does this to hide his embarassment in front of Nowaki. He doesn't notice, and neither did most of the watchers until the subs told them.
Film
- In Alvin and the Chipmunks, all 3 chipmunks did something wrong in their cover-up of their inappropriate behaviour. Simon was holding a book upside-down and Dave corrects him.
- Sort of done in Runaway Bride. Richard Gere's character is so distracted by Julia Roberts' that he has his newspaper upside down. He tries to act uninterested, but fails.
- In To Catch a Thief, after Mrs. Stevens helps John Robie to escape from the policemen that her daughter Francie is bringing to her room, she grabs a book and pretends she has been reading it while Robie is alleged to have been in her room. As Robie escapes across the rooftops, we hear Francie say "Mother, the book you're reading is upside-down!"
- Sara with Forbes magazine while waiting for Frank at the CIA building in Red.
Literature
- Subverted in Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix. Cloudcuckoolander Luna Lovegood actually is reading The Quibbler upside down... because the answers to the quiz are printed upside down to stop people cheating.
- Harry finds an article on a set of runes that if read upside down will reveal a spell to turn someone into a kumquat in The Quibbler, which he figures is the reason why Luna had it upside down when they first met.
- When Hermione tells Professor McGonagall about Harry getting a Firebolt for Christmas and then the teacher goes to temporarily confiscate it so that it can be checked for jinxes/hexes (on the chance that Sirius Black sent it), Hermione hides her face behind a book that she holds upside down.
- Molly Carpenter does this in "White Night". She drops her book in surprise at hearing Harry and Murphy talk about Murphy's relationship with Kincaid. She picks it back up, appearing to be uninterested, but it's upside down.
- In Mary Stewart's Madam, Will You Talk?, the main character and her friend had been speculating that a certain man was probably not interested in women. Then they see that his reaction to a smile from a Femme Fatale includes, when he tries to go back to the book he'd been reading, holding it upside down.
Live Action TV
Newspaper Comics
- Happens to Peter in one FoxTrot strip. Peter and Steve are discussing a fight Peter had gotten into when the principal appears behind them. Peter hurriedly pretends to be talking about an algebra problem but is holding his textbook upside down.
Web Comics
- Gunnerkrigg Court: Anja and Donald are having an intimate moment when their daughter walks in. Both pretend that nothing was going on; Donald grabs a newspaper and holds it upside down.
- In this
 Sinfest strip, the pink demon is specifically trying to pretend to read (rather than pretending not to do something else) in order to impress the bookworm who lent her the book.
Western Animation
Real Life
- There's an Urban Legend about an African American slave during the American Civil War who could read and hid the illegal skill. He was reading a newspaper with good news about the Union when he spotted his master approaching. Thinking fast, he flipped the paper over to make it appear he was attempting to read the paper and didn't know it was upside down.
- There's a possibly apocryphal story about Underground Railroad leader Harriett Tubman. As a wanted woman she was traveling on a train and holding a book. She heard one of the men on the train asking if it was her, but another man said that it couldn't be her since the wanted posters said she couldn't read. The entire time Harriett was praying that she was holding the book correctly, since she really couldn't read.
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