The Last Lecture

紐約時報暢銷書，亞馬遜書店銷售冠軍，邦諾書店五星推薦。

　　這是他人生的最後一堂課，去年8月，美國卡內基梅隆大學教授鮑許（Randy Pausch）罹患治癒率極低的胰臟癌，醫師宣告他的生命僅剩3至6個月。之後鮑許在學校的「最後一堂課」講座發表演說，他在去年9月發表的演說開場，先 展示了一張斷層掃描影像，他的體內有10顆腫瘤。

　　但他接著說的是他的童年夢想：成為《星艦迷航記》影集中的柯克艦長，為迪士尼樂園開發遊戲器材。在演講的最後，鮑許他告訴聽眾，其實這場演說的對象，是他6歲、3歲與不到2歲的三個孩子。

　　這個演說片段在網路的點閱次數超過了600萬人次，在妻子鼓勵之下，鮑許將演說內容演繹成這本書《The Last Lecture》。他最近已歷經心臟衰竭與腎臟衰竭，大部分時間只能臥病在床。他在書中告訴他的孩子們，那些原本想在未來20年內教他們的事，但也分享給 所有人：

　　享受樂趣、說實話、勇於承擔風險、找出每個人美好的一面等等。這是他的最後一堂課，但即將面臨終點的他，所講的這最後一堂課，非關死亡，而關於活著。

本書頁緣為特殊剪裁，保留原始凹凸不平的切邊(Untrimmed on open edge)。

"We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand."
-Randy Pausch

　　A lot of professors give talks titled "The Last Lecture." Professors are asked to consider their demise and to ruminate on what matters most to them. And while they speak, audiences can't help but mull the same question: What wisdom would we impart to the world if we knew it was our last chance? If we had to vanish tomorrow, what would we want as our legacy?

　　When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give such a lecture, he didn't have to imagine it as his last, since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But the lecture he gave-"Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams"-wasn't about dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (because "time is all you have?nd you may find one day that you have less than you think"). It was a summation of everything Randy had come to believe. It was about living.

　　In this book, Randy Pausch has combined the humor, inspiration and intelligence that made his lecture such a phenomenon and given it an indelible form. It is a book that will be shared for generations to come.

作者簡介

　　Randy Pausch is a Professor of Computer Science, Human Computer Interaction, and Design at Carnegie Mellon University. From 1988-1997, he taught at the University of Virginia. He is an award-winning teacher and researcher, and has worked with Adobe, Google, Electronic Arts (EA), and Walt Disney Imagineering, and pioneered the Alice project. He lives in Virginia with his wife and three children.

　　Jeffrey Zaslow, a columnist for The Wall Street Journal, attended the last lecture, and wrote the story that helped fuel worldwide interest in it. He lives in suburban Detroit with his wife, Sherry, and daughters Jordan, Alex and Eden.