Why this book: I am preparing a blog post on 200 days – what it would mean to know you only have 200 days to live. Well, here is a book by a guy who lived (and died) that experience.  I listened to his “last lecture” on youtube and wanted to read the book.

Summary in 3 Sentences:  Randy Pausch was a professor in Computer Science focusing on Virtual Reality when he was diagnosed with stage 4 Pancreatic cancer and given only 3-6 months to live.  His “Last Lecture” can be viewed on YouTube and this book is his story – about how the Last Lecture came about, how he prepared for it, and in this book he elaborates on the points he makes in the presentation of his lecture. He uses the Last Lecture and this book as frameworks to celebrate the life he has lived, to share his most joyous moments, and to pass on lessons he has learned.

My Impressions: This book is full of joy.  Throughout he shares how lucky he has been in his life, and and he shares stories of his most joyous moments.  He also shares his failures and mistakes from which he gleaned the many life-lessons he has learned in his 47 years.

The book is also a “letter” to his 3 children who he knows, and we know, will grow up without him.  He hopes in this book to pass on fatherly wisdom that may be useful to them when they are older, but for which they are too young and inexperienced to fully appreciate while their father is still on this earth.  He shares how he is trying to be a great father to them in the limited time he has left, and how this book is his attempt to continue to serve them after he’s passed on.

This book is partly an account of how he has dealt with knowing he has a limited time to live, partly a celebration of the life he has been able to live so far, and partly a “What I have learned about living well” to pass on to his kids in the future and to us, his readers now.   He fulfilled each of these goals well, but what was particularly inspiring to me was his exuberance over the various experiences he recounts from his life, and his appreciation for how lucky he has been.

The book is a great reminder of what’s important in life and how to pay attention to it while living it – these are the things that a good, positive man realizes when he is told he only has months to live. And so he passes that on to us.  He shares his dreams as a child and in fact became aware that he had in fact realized his most important child hood dreams – for which he was very thankful.  He has a whole section entitled “Adventures… and Lessons learned.”  He offers us rules about parenting and encouraging children, as well as encouraging others – especially students and subordinates – and helping them fulfill their dreams.  And the longest section is entitled, “It’s about how to live your life.”

He is very open and personal in his book. He calls himself (and has a chapter entitled) “A recovering jerk” based on his self-centered focus when he was young and ambitious, and how others helped to bring him around.  And then, he shares how he helped bring other ‘jerks” around. Chapters with titles like, “Earnest is better than hip,” and “Don’t complain, just work harder,” and “Don’t Obsess over what people think,” “Look for the best in Everybody,” and “Watch what they do, not what they say.”    Lot’s of homespun wisdom based on his own stories and his own hard-earned life lessons.

It is a near end-of-life testament to a life well lived. We should all be so lucky as to be able to look back with few regrets and mostly joy at the life we have lived, the positive impact we have made, and the legacy we leave to our children and others.  But Randy Pausch’s book reminds us – that is a choice we make while we are alive.

This is a book I could and should read again. And I will.