The Last Lecture
"We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.” —Randy Pausch When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, was asked to give a last 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. You can watch [The Last Lecture on YouTube][1].
Where The Last Lecture keeps showing up
Three of our editors' lists feature this novel.
What you might want to know about The Last Lecture
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Carnegie Mellon computer science professor Randy Pausch was forty-seven and had three small children when he was given months to live by his pancreatic cancer team. The book grew out of his last lecture on campus and walks through the childhood dreams he wanted to leave for his kids.
Yes. The Last Lecture is based on Randy Pausch's real 2007 farewell lecture at Carnegie Mellon University after his pancreatic cancer diagnosis. Pausch died in July 2008, less than a year after the lecture. Jeffrey Zaslow co-wrote the book.
Yes. Randy Pausch's original 2007 Carnegie Mellon lecture is freely available on YouTube and has been viewed tens of millions of times. Many readers watch the talk before reading the book.
The Last Lecture was written by Randy Pausch, published in 2008 by HODDER.
The Last Lecture is 206 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Last Lecture takes most readers 3 to 4 hours to finish.
The Last Lecture is a standalone novel by Randy Pausch, not part of a series.
The Last Lecture is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
