Books are written — and read  – for as many reasons as there are words. For fame, for entertainment, for money, for advice, for illuminating, for a laugh. For the inexplicable compulsion to say something to strangers whom you’ll never meet but who may get to know you in a profound way. 

Randy Pausch wrote a book for love, specifically for his children. He didn’t intend to write a book when he gave his last lecture at Carnegie-Mellon University after being diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer. But the video of his lecture did what the best stories often do: It inspired the people who saw it to share it with others. Millions of others, as it turned out, thanks to YouTube and the Wall Street Journal. But a video can be time-consuming and fleeting at the same time. To really capture a moment, it takes a book. 

How powerful is Pausch’s story? My husband — whose chosen genre runs more to the business bookshelves — read it in one literary swallow. I picked it up and found it easy, conversational, earnest but free from the corniness it could’ve offered. And, yes, by its end, I was sitting on a lounger chair on a beautiful Mexican beach … gulping back snot as tears streamed down my face. For all its casual wisdom, Pausch’s fate was never uncertain. He died Friday, July 25. Here, his co-author talks about his last days and what the book meant to Pausch.

I don’t believe every book has to touch the world. But isn’t it wonderful when one knocks you over? It’s the reason I love to read, love to talk about books and mess around with words. 

P.S. As a word wonk, I love that this little volume was published by Hyperion. The house’s authors represent such a life raft of oddities. Is Dog the Bounty Hunter one of the five people Mitch Albom will meet in heaven? Who’s sexier: Candace Bushnell or Bob Newhart?  Which celebrity chef would I rather be adopted by: Jamie Oliver or Nigella Lawson?