The Book: A Million MIles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life, by Donald Miller
The Story: Six or seven years ago, Donald Miller kind of rose to Christian stardom after his memoir Blue Like Jazz got super, super popular. I guess a while later, some guys came to Donald and asked him if he wanted to make the memoir into a movie. He jumped at the chance.
This book is kind of his journey through that. Because they involved Donald Miller heavily in the process of writing the movie, he was partly responsible for “editing” his life. He went to a seminar and did a lot of reading on the important parts of a story: the rising and falling action, the characters, and so on. At some point, someone tells him that any story is, “A character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it.”
Donald starts applying these ideas and the principles of a “good story” to his life so that he’ll have something interesting to talk to God about when he gets there.
What I Thought: I jumped on the Donald Miller train way early with Prayer and the Art of Volkswagen Maintenance (which he changed up and later republished as Through Painted Deserts) and I’ve been following him closely all along.
When I started this book, I felt a little disappointed because the first few chapters sort of re-tell a lot of his story that he told in Blue Like Jazz. I thought maybe he just needed a few extra bucks and so he was just going to try to rerelease Blue Like Jazz without anyone noticing. After a few chapters though, it becomes pretty obvious that this is a book unto itself.
The ideas that Donald Miller explores here are kind of convicting and pretty provocative. He was thinking about what would make his “story” better- how his “character” could be better- and he starts taking the steps that it would take to make that happen. He bikes across the country. He hikes the Inca Trail. He tries to find his estranged father. He goes out on a limb with the girl he has a crush on. He quits watching so much TV and really starts to live.
I love Donald Miller’s style of writing. It is conversational and flows beautifully. He makes me feel “normal” because he struggles with a lot of the same things I do- ego, boredom, contentment. I just found myself nodding a long so many times. He hits the nail right on the head. I hate to say something so cliche as, “this is a life changing book,” but it actually kind of is. It just offers this new, fresh perspective and I know that I’ll find myself thinking about it for a long time.
Conclusion: I would read Blue Like Jazz before this one, but if you’ve already read that: read this now. We’re talking right now. Go get it. Good stuff.