Book review: The Last Lecture
Trip Start
Jul 19, 2008
1
6
15
Trip End
Aug 31, 2009
Bangkok,
Thailand
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Randy Pausch is now dead. He passed away a few weeks ago and this fact was reportedly widely by the media as he had become very well known through events covered by this book.
He had been diagnosed with cancer, but instead of canceling all his obligations as a college professor he decided to keep one; a lecture whose subject matter was "to offer reflections of his personal and professional journey". The nature of his lecture obviously changed after his diagnosis and Randy decided to leave some life lessons for his children. He called the lecture "really achieving your childhood dreams".
The video is on YouTube and has been watched many millions of times. It is inspirational, thought provoking and also saddening. The book fills out some of the background and all the lessons contained within it. I read the book first and was very moved by it.
I find in general that watching the 'movie of the book' is always unsatisfying as you miss a large amount of detail and subtlety after the big screen translation. This is not the case here and if you are pressed for time then I recommend that you just watch the video, it will take less time and will give you 90% of what you get from the book.
This is a must read, or at least a must watch!!! The book is 209 pages and took about 5 hours. The video is about 70 minutes.
4 out of 5 for the book as it does not add a significant amount to the lecture
5 out of 5 for the video.
P.S. If you are a fan of this book, also read "Tuesday's With Morrie" by Mitch Albom which I read earlier this year and is very inspirational in a similar way.
