Product Description

"We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand."
--Randy Pausch

A lot of professors give talks titled "The Last Lecture." Professors are asked to consider their demise and to ruminate on what matters most to them. And while they speak, audiences can't help but mull the same question: What wisdom would we impart to the world if we knew it was our last chance? If we had to vanish tomorrow, what would we want as our legacy?

When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give such a lecture, he didn't have to imagine it as his last, since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But the lecture he gave--"Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams"--wasn't about dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (because "time is all you have...and you may find one day that you have less than you think"). It was a summation of everything Randy had come to believe. It was about living.

In this book, Randy Pausch has combined the humor, inspiration and intelligence that made his lecture such a phenomenon and given it an indelible form. It is a book that will be shared for generations to come.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-08
• Released on: 2008-04-08
• Format: Roughcut
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Made famous by his Last Lecture at Carnegie Mellon and the quick Internet proliferation of the video of the event, Pausch decided that maybe he just wasn't done lecturing. Despite being several months into the last stage of pancreatic cancer, he managed to put together this book. The crux of it is lessons and morals for his young and infant children to learn once he is gone. Despite his sometimes-contradictory life rules, it proves entertaining and at times inspirational. Surprisingly, the audiobook doesn't include the reading of Pausch's actual Last Lecture, which he gave on September 18, 2007, a month after being diagnosed. Erik Singer provides an excellent inflective voice that hints at the reveries of past experiences with family and children while wielding hope and regret for family he will leave behind. The first CD is enhanced with photos.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author
Randy Pausch is a Professor of Computer Science, Human Computer Interaction, and Design at Carnegie Mellon University. From 1988-1997, he taught at the University of Virginia. He is an award-winning teacher and researcher, and has worked with Adobe, Google, Electronic Arts (EA), and Walt Disney Imagineering, and pioneered the Alice project. He lives in Virginia with his wife and three children.

Jeffrey Zaslow, a columnist for The Wall Street Journal, attended the last lecture, and wrote the story that helped fuel worldwide interest in it. He lives in suburban Detroit with his wife, Sherry, and daughters Jordan, Alex and Eden.

Customer Reviews

this book should be mandatory for everyone's 12th birthday
I wish I had been given or had at least read this book when I was young.I think it should be required reading for everyone.I feel blessed to have read it.

This book changed my life
I don't read - I just don't have the time. I read this book and was so deeply moved by the way Randy lived his life, loved his wife and his children. Also, his dreams, he loved them too. This book was well written and made me want to read and read until the end. I highly recommend this book.

The Refreshing Insight Needed
While I appreciate the reviews of those who found this book to not be of stellar quality, I would like to offer another side to the coin. The book is "simple and sweet" and may not offer much in terms of the ultimate enlightenment, but maybe that is not what I believe the book was intended to be.

The book speaks to many for the purpose that it brings up all the nostalgia and experiences that we either had or longed for in our lives. At times it does seep with Hollywood syrupiness, but it is written for a variety of people to be able to understand and relate to. Randy was writing a book for his family and friends (and those of us lucky enough to have read the book or listened to the lecture).

There is a reason Hollywood syrupiness exists and that is because it reminds of us all the wonderful things there is in life (from the seemingly mundane interactions with friends and family members to the "quirky" mishaps that occur as you are being whisked away from your wedding in a hot air balloon).

I currently am experiencing what has been coined a "quarter-life" crisis and this book put a lot into perspective for me. My summer has been spent with a more focused reflection upon where I have been and where I would like to go in my life. It made me remember those "childish" daydreams and wishes. My curiosity has not been zapped from me...as I am a science teacher and thrive on questioning and seeking (which may be another reason I found Randy's book well worth reading). I just lost my way in a very rapidly changing world that often gets bogged down with the desires of materialism and status.

My thoughts are that I enjoyed this book because it was able to verbalize the many thoughts that have been swimming through my mind the past year and helped me regain focus on what is near and dear to my heart.