While I’m a little late to the game in reading Pausch’s The Last Lecture, I’m glad I finally got there. Pausch gave his last lecture at Carnegie Mellon, where he was a computer science professor. He had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, undergone unsuccessful chemotherapy treatment, and was getting his family settled and ready for life without him when the opportunity to give one last lecture presented itself.
He utilized the lecture to record the important moments in his life for his children. Pausch is unique in that he achieved many of his childhood dreams and he explains how during the lecture.
Given the choice, I suggest skipping the book and watching the actual lecture which is posted on You Tube by Carnegie Mellon.