I recently found out that a good friend is dying of cancer at only 50 years old, and I will be going to see them, probably for the last time, very soon. Another friend suggested that I read this book, The Last Lecture, before I go.
The author was born the same year as me, 1960. He was from Columbia, Maryland as is a good friend of mine. He was a computer science professor and got pancreatic cancer a few years ago which is very serious and has a low survival rate. I think he died recently.
He gave his "Last Lecture" at the school where he had been teaching - the lecture being really on his situation. Later, he wrote this book which is related to this lecture but has more material from what I gathered.
There is much in the book that is very personal to the author and his life and family. Much of it "applies" to others as well though, especially to people like me that were born at around the same time as him - see discussion on Star Trek for instance. Some of it will make you laugh if you are the right age and some of it might make you cry too. There are many lessons shared as well. Lots of honesty here.
The author does say at the end something to the effect that it is about everyone and following their dreams, but he really wrote it for his kids - presumably to teach them something about life and to know him better when they are older. I think his children were all very young when he wrote this near his death.
Plenty to think about. Life is short, don't wait to live it may be the most important lesson here.
The book was not what I thought it was going to be, but I found it still well worth reading. It is hard to explain, but it did not rate 5 stars for me, but deserved at least 4. Sorry, that is how it was for me.
Get more detail about The Last Lecture CD.
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