Book Review: The Last Lecture
- Author
- Randy Pausch and Jeffrey Zaslow
- Grade
- A-
Facing death is no picnic, but it doesn’t have to be mean despair, either.
Most people, when asked whether or not they would want to know when they are going to die, would choose not to know how much longer they have to live. Dr. Randy Pausch, professor at Carnegie Mellon and author of The Last Lecture, may not know the exact date of his death but he knows he has months, not years, to live due to metastasizing pancreatic cancer. His lecture, delivered in September 2007 before a packed crowd, became an instant You Tube hit, thanks to Pausch’s message and an article by a reporter for the Wall Street Journal. The companion book, assembled over a period of months with the help of Jeffrey Zaslow, expands upon his message of following your dreams and living your life as a person of worth and good works. It’s really Pausch’s dreams, hopes, and experiences, and the lessons he would have passed on to his children should he been able to survive to raise them to adulthood.
The book reads like a chat you would have with your best friend. Pausch is upbeat and cheerful throughout the book, gleefully recounting his experiences as a professor; working as a Disney Imagineer (he’s a computer science guy, taken on by Disney during a sabbatical from teaching to help design and build new exhibits and rides); meeting and marrying his wife (who sounds like the kind of woman who has endless reservoirs of strength); and the births of his three children. In between his personal anecdotes about his life, he reinforces the book’s message – try to achieve your childhood dreams, figure out what’s important in life, and put your energy toward that rather than the meaningless things that tend to suck up one’s time.
Pausch has a sharp sense of humor, demonstrated in the story he recounts about seeing his medical file after a nurse left it behind when she went to get the doctor. Pausch and his wife read the results and discovered his levels were sky high, and he learned about the ten tumors in his liver. He and his wife fell into each other’s arms, crying about news that they no longer need the doctor to deliver to them, and it is at this moment that his analytical mind kicks in and he notes the room has no Kleenex, which he immediately labels an operational flaw of the hospital. He then notes that the irony of his personality is such that even at a moment like that, he can’t help analyzing the situation around him and noting what corrections need to be made.
Pausch’s message is not a new one, but one that bears repeating in the age of high tech and personal disconnect. The little things we do can have a great impact on those around us, in ways we may never know nor could never imagine. If the reader needed a reminder to be nice to people, or to cherish every moment with those you love, this book subtly reinforces the idea that what matters are not material goods, but the memories and stories you create with your loved ones.
Update: Randy Pausch died on July 25, 2008.
Copyright . Published 1 July 2008 in What’s New.
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