The Last Lecture

The Last Lecture, by Randy Pausch (with Jeffrey Zaslow)

My first exposure to this book was when a customer came in and asked about it because she had seen it on Oprah. Tom didn't know what it was, so I had to research both the name of the book and the author's name, because the customer was, as usual, unhelpful. ("I'm looking for that book that was written by that guy about that thing...")

Several months later, a friend of mine bought it and, through unexpected circumstances, found himself with quite a bit of free time to sit and read. He recommended it to me, saying it was the only book that made him cry. I borrowed it. I read it. I cried.

The story is that Carnegie Mellon holds a series of lectures every year in which professors are asked to imagine that it is the last lecture they will ever give. In this unique situation, it really WAS the last lecture Mr. Pausch would be giving. As the organizers and public relations promoters sent final warning emails to the lecturers to send a definite "yes, I'll be speaking on... " RSVP to them, Mr. Pausch was receiving the news that his cancer had metastasized and "there is nothing else modern medicine can do."

When the video of the lecture went viral on the internet, Mr. Pausch put together a book containing the contents of his lecture, in addition to his thoughts and reasoning behind what he had chosen to say to his final audience.

The concept was essentially, "Live life to the fullest because you could die tomorrow." Cliched, I know. But at the same time, he said so many little things, that all fit into the main theme, which were not as cliched. They were things like: "do everything you can to achieve your childhood dreams," "if you don't achieve a dream, you should still make it mean something," "phrase your words in a positive light even if you don't work in retail," "don't focus on things but on how you enjoy your things with the people important to you." Granted, many of the ideas are still cliched, just not as much as the first. But in this book, I found all the reminders of how we all should be living our lives. It sometimes just takes a dying man to remind us of those things we already know.

Speaking of cliches, Mr. Pausch believes in them wholeheartedly. Chapter 38 begins, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try a cliche." His reasoning is that even if the phrase has been around forever, most people don't know its cliched, and if they do, its because the cliche is right most of the time. The best part of this book is that some of the great quotable lines come from Mr. Pausch himself, and if it is important to him, he says it twice or more throughout the book. (And in case you are wondering, 38 is not a daunting number. The chapters are short.)

I recommend this book to anyone who is a sappy romantic or who lost a father, anyone who wants to appreciate their father more, anyone who needs a little reminder for where they are or should be heading in life, anyone who collects interesting quotes or anecdotes, and anyone who likes reading about scientists, intellectual thinkers, or teachers.

Incidentally, this book made me discover that you can learn a lot about someone by the books they reccommend you read.