Author: Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow
Publisher: Hyperion
Year: 2008
Price: About $21.95

Even though author Randy Pausch has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, with “The Last Lecture” he has written a poignant, witty, positive and sincere book that should be an inspiration to many people, especially college students who are still finding their place in the world. Pausch's message is an important reminder that there is more to life than some of the small details that we become too focused on. The message in the book is that life's brick walls are there to separate you from others who want the same thing you do. If you want something badly enough, you will be persistent and determined to reach it.

Pausch does make a good point toward the end of the book. Sometimes patients with terminal diseases are the beneficiaries of unending adulation and seldom receive a harsh word.  As you read "The Last Lecture," you realize this is a book not written just as another philosophically dense lecture series but it's coming from the heart, from Randy's own experience with terminal cancer and coming to terms with his own limited time on earth.

Knowing his time is limited, you sense an urgency in his message and at the same time what is the most important in life becomes defined through his words. All the things that we think need to be put off for later. All the dreams we have left as relics to be abandoned from our childhood, when you face your own mortality come to the foreground as the very essence of existence.

This is an unforgettable lecture that will change you and also touch you. "The Last Lecture" will be a great legacy for Randy on its own but even more he'll be remembered for personally touching so many people mentioned in this book.