The Last Lecture Audio Book by Randy Pausch

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch, with Jeffrey Zaslow

The Last Lecture audio book is an audio reading of the book by Randy Pausch by the same name. If you are someone who likes to buy audio book and listen to them during your driving, we recommend this book as a source of inspiration.

Every year, a Carnegie Mellon University faculty member would be asked to deliver a speech called “The Last Lecture.” During these talks, they were asked to talk on what matters most to them if they were to face their impending death. As they speak, most audiences would ponder on the same questions. If we were to die tomorrow, what kind of legacy would we want to leave behind?


Most of the professors have to imagine what was their last wish when they were asked to deliver such a lecture. Not Randy Pausch, the author of “The Last Lecture”, the book that is now available as audio book form, when he was asked to speak in September 2007. Randy Pausch, who was a 47 year-old computer science professor and a father of three at that time, did not need to imagine on his imminent death because he had just been recently diagnosed with terminal cancer.

His last lecture was titled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.” It was a lecture about importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling others to achieve their dreams and about changing your life. When Randy was asked to speak, he was left with only between three to six months to live. It was a speech every bit upbeat and inspirational. Rather than focusing about dying, Randy had chosen to talk about living, about achieving one’s dreams and enabling the dreams of others, about truly living each day as though it were your last.

Randy Pausch wrote, “time is all you have… and you may find one day that you have less than you think.” The Last Lecture audio book is about living and it was a summation of all that Randy had believed in. He also wrote, “Almost all of us have childhood dreams; for example, being an astronaut, or making movies or video games for a living. Sadly, most people don’t achieve theirs, and I think that’s a shame. I had several specific childhood dreams, and I’ve actually achieved most of them. More importantly, I have found ways, in particular the creation (with Don Marinelli), of CMU’s Entertainment Technology Center of helping many young people actually *achieve* their childhood dreams”

The book The Last Lecture was published in April 2008, was a result of collaboration with Jeffrey Zaslow, a columnist for the Wall Street Journal. In its printed form, the book is a slender book that can be read in just few readings. The book revisits Randy’s fulfilment of his childhood dreams and the principles he learned along the way. You will also find a lot of quotation such as those from the Roman philosopher Seneca that says that “luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”

Randy Pausch is a wonderful story-teller as he recalls and deliver about what’s truly essential in life. The audio book addresses more of his struggles with cancer always from the angle of a challenge requiring creative solution. Randy Pausch’s The Last Lecture was written solely for his three young children, but his wisdom and voices is so clear in its delivery that everyone can benefit from it.

The Last Lecture audio book was published by Hyperion Audio Books and its playing time is 4 hours and 15 minutes. It was first released in March 27, 2008 and had an average customer rating of 4.32 out of 5, based on a rating of 620 ratings. Buy The Last Lecture audio book and you will experience how Randy Pausch combined humor, inspiration and intelligence that made his lecture such a phenomenon. It will definitely be a book that will be shared for generations to come.