I saw the tent at the last minute out of the corner of my eye. “Hold on,” I blurted to my wife in the passenger seat. Cutting the wheel sharp to the right, we careened into the dry gravel parking lot of the Old Lyme Library, churning up a cloud of dust. “Really?” she exclaimed. “All that for a book sale?”

It was a car chase maneuver right out of the hit show “NCIS: Book Sale.” Okay, no such show exists but that illustrates how much I love book sales. I’m willing to risk life and limb.

Used book sales are not only nirvana for the curious and bibliophiles, they can also lead to a greater understanding of our turbulent world.

I cannot ignore books for sale. Walking in downtown Old Saybrook heading to an outdoor craft fair, I came upon a small table of books on the sidewalk offering used books for sale.

I perused a worn 1932 Nobel Prize Edition of “Nine Plays by Eugene O’Neill.” I didn’t buy it but that book stayed on my mind as I wandered the craft bazaar. Eugene O’Neill is a local icon and here was a 1932 collection of plays that the author had selected himself. I regretted my decision. A southeastern Connecticut home library is just not complete without a Eugene O’Neill and this book captivated me.

Later, returning along the same route and not holding out much hope that the book would still be there, I stopped once again at the little book sale. Yet there it was! I bought it for a dollar fifty. Folded inside was a 1962 Saturday Review cover featuring a large picture of O’Neill, noted as the subject of a new biography. The Nobel Laureate in Literature had died nine years earlier in 1953.

I used to live in North Carolina where they held the Mother of All Book Sales every year. Five regional libraries would pool their resources, rent a huge vacant box store and fill it with miles of tables lined with books. By the final day, you filled a box for five dollars. Pure heaven.

One of my favorite local book sales is the late-October not-so-big Salem School book sale on Route 85.

Last year, when the doors opened, I headed straight for the “Politics” table and flipped through a copy of the New York Times 2002 Bestseller “Longitudes & Attitudes, Exploring the World after September 11” by Thomas L. Friedman, a three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author and New York Times foreign affairs columnist. I wasn’t familiar with Friedman’s work but I dropped the book in my bag.

The book is a collection of Freidman’s columns written from the hotbed of the Middle East after 9/11 as he sought to discover who the Saudi hijackers were and why they so hated us.

He spoke with Saudi princes, political leaders, college professors, pundits, students and many others as he autopsied the miasma of Saudi Arabian and Middle Eastern politics, describing the region’s ongoing education of young jihadists throughout its school systems. Hatred of the West is a core curriculum, even within Saudi Arabia, a “friend” to the U.S.

It is a cultural divide both fascinating and frightening as educators relentlessly sow the seeds of intolerance and future suffering with the Saudi regime’s tacit approval.

It was a powerful book well worth $1.50, confirming that used book sales can educate and lead to a greater understanding of our turbulent world.

Of course, my wife hopes I’ll one day find a book on driving skills.

John Steward lives in Waterford and can be reached at tossinglines@gmail.com.