The Last Lecture

The Last Lecture"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

"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.

Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Hachette Books
Published: 04/08/2008
ISBN: 9781401323257
Pages: 206
Weight: 0.65lbs
Size: 7.10h x 5.30w x 0.90d
Award: Virginia Readers Choice Award - Nominee
Award: Grand Canyon Reader Award - Recommended
Award: Books for a Better Life - Winner

Review Citations: People Weekly 04/21/2008 pg. 56
Time 04/21/2008 pg. 4
Newsweek 05/26/2008 pg. 12
Entertainment Weekly 07/25/2008 pg. 75
People Weekly 08/11/2008 pg. 54
People Weekly 12/29/2008 pg. 53
Newsweek 03/16/2009 pg. 56
Publishers Weekly Best Books 03/23/2009 pg. 18
Time 04/27/2009 pg. 55
People Weekly 05/25/2009 pg. 103

Accelerated Reader Quiz #/Name: 129774 / Last Lecture
Reading Level: 6.3 / Interest Level: Upper Grade / Point Value: 7