Turn two switches on. Wait a minute. Turn two switches on (not the exact same two). Then rush upstairs.

One of the lightbulbs will be dark; that will be the switch that is off.
The hottest lightbulb will be the one that was switched on both times.
The third switch controls the third bulb, which is on but not quite so hot.

:)

... or: give a shout to a friend upstairs and ask them which bulbs go on. ;)

it all happens as the story progresses, he is there no longer than a few hours before he kills himself.

ArticStones: You are so nearly correct, your solution will work but here's the original answer.

Turn any one switch to the "on" position for 5 minutes, then turn that switch "off". Quickly turn any other switch to the "on" position and run up stairs. Feel the two lights that are "off". One of them will be "hot" because is was "on" for 5 minutes. Obviously the "hot" bulb is controlled by the first switch you turned "on". The light that is currently "on" is controlled by the switch you last turn "on". The "cold" bulb that is "off" is controlled by the only switch left.

Was the page he turned the last page of the book?

nope

it could have been any page

Did he see something outside the car that caused him to kill himself?

nope

you are on the right track though, keep asking keep thinking lol

Was the book "Suicide" by Émile Durkheim?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_(book)

There needed to be some kind of relationship between what is in the book, what is happening outside, and the idea of only a weeks length of survival to cause him to kill himself.

Is there a disaster happening?

nope

another hint the book is irrelevant. It could have been the funny pages or the holy bible. Everything happened in chronological order as described.

I missed some of the other questions and answers. OK. <thought processing> He is going to die of something, something shorter than one week, something worse. Get it over with now. Hmmm.

Is he in the desert post nuclear disaster? (ie exposed to radiation)

A feather?

no, as far as he knows there is no radiation around.

Remember it all happened in chronological order, "he turned the page, then reached into his car grabbed a gun and shot himself"

Sorry no, schneb.

Mary Poppins has a duck on the end of one.

It's a flare gun.

He was waiting for it to get dark enough to set off the flare and didn't realize that his car broke down because of a gas leak.

The gas ignited and the car exploded.

no, the relation is simply this, he turned the page and then decided to kill himself.

The object of this riddle is to ask the right questions, get background knowledge then come up with your answer. This is one of the medium challenged ones, perhaps I should have started with an easier one.

In the movie it's a parrot. But I get it, an umbrella!

But think about my answer... "Feather"... "Down..." (as in down pillow) I think it works! :)

interesting twist but not the answer I know. That could be a variation of the riddle perhaps someone could use. I suppose you could even learn that his sense of smell doesn't exist from deductive logic if asked the right questions.

however, no he did not die from a car explosion, it was a real gun

Is something going to fall on him?

like from the sky? nope

.
Is the cause of his imminent death already within his body?

Is the cause of his imminent death an external being?

Two-legged? Four-legged?

Would his imminent death be due to lack of something that is physiologically essential?

Has what is threatening to kill him taken the lives om many other people?