the mild, spicy smell of old books hit him, and the smell was somehow like coming home

 from the 21 Questions Game 

3. What inscription do you want on your gravestone?  no gravestone. I want to be made into a paperweight. If someone really needs to do it, plant a tree someplace and carve my initials in it.

4. What cause is worth dedicating your life to?  I've recently had occasion to talk with someone who's been fortunate to have two such causes: military service and fatherhood. That conversation led me to realize that my own life has been turned more inward than out. It's disconcerting to recognize how shallow that is.

5. What should parents stop teaching their children?  That cutting corners is all right. Sometimes it's literal, such as when crossing the street. Parents: Take Your Kids To Crosswalks! How do you expect them to learn safe crossing, if you just dash around willy-nilly?? 

    More often, though, it is figurative. Helping your child to secure its first babysitting job is a good thing. Greasing the wheels to set them up in a corner office at 25, though? Not helping your "baby." Neither is referring to them as 'baby' past the age of maybe four.

    Feh.

7. How much do you change when you know no one is around?  I probably use better posture when others are present, and turn on more lights and definitely more music

8. How useful would you be in a zombie apocalypse?  I would be moderate help to my non-zombie friends, because I would not be the first to die but would also not last terribly long - and I would be easy to kill once I'd crossed over

9. How much do you know about the world outside your country?  what a painful question. Though I've not traveled as much as I would have liked, I am reasonably well read and open minded. That might help fill some gaps in my knowledge.

11. Who would you most like to sit next to on a 10 hour flight and why?  someone I know who prefers not to sit next to anyone on flights. He's self-contained, easy to travel with, low-maintenance, generally somewhat good-natured about inconvenience, and physically comfortable to be around.

12. What are two things you know you should know how to do but don't?  how to put air in my car tires and how to make gravy

14. What do most people think about you that is absolutely not true?  that I give a fuck about either my IQ or my bra size

15. What is something that can't be taught but can only be learned with age?  that real friendship is as much a decision as it is luck and feelings and coincidence

18. What makes you say "What was I thinking?" when you look back on your life?  pretty much everything that's occurred in the past month

19. If you could live your life again knowing what you do now, what would you change?  don't tempt me.

20. You have $100 to burn, all your friends are busy and you have the whole day to yourself: what do you do?  buy books, preferably in some wonderful hidey-hole of an independent bookstore with a staff that leaves you alone to wander, a huge selection of used poetry and fiction, some quirky handmade cards, and a place to sit in the sun and look over some choices

[from here; the title quotation is by Stephen King, from The Waste Lands]