As a native English speaker, I can tell you that the sentence is ridiculously verbose. He needs an editor. Having said that, it means that he uses his past experiences to help in his current life.

a sloppy person is either dirty, ungroomed, or poorly dressed sloppy can be applied to an arguement. A sloppy arguement would be one with poor logic. It is a general term for a lack of care.

first is not correct, second is. "father's" is possessive. You could say "He is a friend of my father's boss". Or, "He is my father's friend".

I have also seen "the aughts" used. Aught is a seldom used term for zero. I am American but I think it is more common in British English.

she might have to "parcel some off" meaning to sell some of the land. "Any more than she had to" means that she will only sell what is necessary to get the money she needs

All three are correct and natural sounding. Indeed, 2 and 3 have identical meaning. I can't explain the origin of that use of "there", but it is common. Sometimes "there" refers to a location, like: "over there", or "there, in the corner". In this case it does not refer to a location. It a very common usage. I wish I could explain better.

It means that he left quickly. "Took off running " would be another way to say it

A is correct. a person could be fascinated by the book, but a book is not alive and cannot be fascinated