The Last Lecture

Title: The Last Lecture

Author: Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow

Pages: 206

Genre: Humor, Self-Help, Memoir

Grade: A

Synopsis: Many people have heard about Dr. Pausch's Last Lecture at Carnegie Mellon or seen clips on youtube. He was a distinguished professor of Computer Science that was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and only given a few months to live. He used the stage at Carnegie Mellon to give a lecture titled "Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" and the book elaborates on many of the topics and stories that he shared.

My Review: I love the positive outlook that this book gave me. Here is a book on life written by a terminally ill man, who has since died. I loved all of the stories, anecdotes and reminders that life is too short, live it up a little. This is the type of book that I could read every few years just as a reminder of how important the little things are in life. There is a good reason why Randy Pausch was named one of the Time 100 most influential people in the world in 2008 (see article here, written by Katie Couric).

From the Book: "(p. 6) Throughout my academic career, I'd given some pretty good talks. But being considered the best speaker in the computer science department is like being known as the tallest of the Seven Dwarfs. And right then, I had the feeling that I had more in me, that if I gave it my all, I might be able to offer people something special. "Wisdom" is a strong word, but maybe that was it."