Ian Sanford
Smith
The Last Lecture
Randy Pausch. The Last Lecture
Hyperion Books: 2008.
Heart
Own collection
Motivational, All Ages
206 pg.
There is a tradition at Carnegie Mellon University, where a selected professor gives a speech with a “Last Lecture” format (if they were to die what would they tell people, that they believe is most important to succeed in life). This truly was Randy Pausch’s last lecture. Randy was a Professor at Carnegie Mellon who had previously been diagnosed with a terminal cancer and was told he only had a few months to live. His lecture titled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” had nothing to do with his condition. His lecture was about achieving your childhood dreams, enabling the dreams of others and how to achieve your dreams.
Randy Pausch, the main character is a “husband, father, teacher, brother, friend and mentor to his students”. Randy was a professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. From 1988 to 1997 he taught at the University of Virginia. His teaching and research has earned him several awards and accolades. He has worked with Google, Adobe, Google, Electronic Arts Walt Disney Imagineering, and Alice (he pioneered (Alice)). Throughout the book his humorous, intelligent and very intellectual ways help the reader understand him and can easily relate to him and his journey through life. His wife Jai and children, Logan, Chloe and Dylan are his inspiration in his “Last Lecture”.
For the most part the setting of the book takes place in a packed Carnegie Mellon classroom where Randy gives his speech. The setting holds little importance and is greatly overshadowed by the message being told by Randy Pausch.
Pausch’s writing style is extremely easy to comprehend and relate to. The way he explains things really sucks you into the book and you won’t want to put it down. Some of the wordage is scholarly but not difficult to say the most.
This book is a must read to all, it is truly inspirational and not to sound to cliché but it changed the way I look at life.
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4 comments:
This sounds like a good book full of knowledge and good advice. By reading this I feel like i could walk away more appreciative of what I have, along with several life lessons. This book sounds not only educational but insiping at the same time. By the sound of it anyone reading this book will walk away with a new message or a new reason to appreciate life.
This book sounds pretty interesting. It also looks like you can get a lot of out it like advice, knowledge and some perspective on life. For sure a book I'm considering to read next quarter.
From the post this sounds like a good and meaningful book. It seems that it would be full of interesting and deep life lessons. By reading this book I feel that you would walk away from it with a new understanding and appriciation towards life.
From your post, this does sound like a good book to read. It seems that you could get several lessons out of it and walk away with a new appreciation on life.
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