A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: my thoughts on the book

Last night I finished my second book on nook :), A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: what I learned by editing my life by Donald Miller. My friend and college roommate, Jennifer, recommended it to me earlier this year (on facebook), definitively telling me “This is a Tina book.” She and I have had countless conversations on faith, fate, and forgiveness (and such), so when she says something like that, I listen… and she was right…

Donald Miller is a Christian writer. His previous bestselling book, Blue Like Jazz, was the true story of his life growing up without a father. Jenn read that one while we were living together and praised it immensely. I haven’t read it yet. From what I understand, it has more religious references than A Million Miles, which had ‘some’, but you can take what you will, keep reading and still enjoy the story (if you’re not into this religion – or any religion)…

But anyway…enough about the author, let’s talk about the book… Wait a second…the book is about the author…let’s just get on with it…

In all honesty, I feel like a better person now that I have read it. It was a quick read, yet made a lasting impact on me… I must say that there were times when I was not a huge fan of his writing style – I don’t think I learned a single new vocabulary word :( , but all things considered he told a very true, very real story… It is actually quite similar to the movie Adaptation (which I reviewed a couple of posts ago).

A Million Miles is the nonfiction story of how Miller changed his life after two producers approached him with idea of making a movie out of Blue Like Jazz (true story). However, as they all sat down to write a screenplay, the producers basically said that the book itself (Donald’s life) was too boring (for a movie) and that they were going to have to spice it up a bit. Miller was offended at first, but ultimately realized they were right… and began researching what makes a good story (a good life).

He decided that a good story in its basic form involves a character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it. And stories are better when there is a lot of risk involved – in fact, the more risk the better.

In this book, Donald describes the interesting scenes that occurred in his and his friends’ lives after the inciting incident where he realized he wasn’t fully living his life. Scenes of how his life changed, more specifically, how he changed his life, once he realized he needed to make his real life a better story (a better movie).

As usual, I am not going to go into too much detail about the meat of the book (you can Google anything you want :)), but instead am going to tell you a little portion of what I learned from the lessons his amusing anecdotes taught. I made a lot of notes along the way with this one (like I did with Eat Pray Love), and I would love to pull them out and talk to each piece individually – but #1 there are too many and #2 I can’t figure out how to view my notes in the nook without having to search through all of the pages:(

…but anyway…

For me, this book was an incredible motivator. It reinforced that I need to get out and do something with my life, make a difference in the world, leave a mark. Fully live. What the world needs is people who come ALIVE! Every day is a scene in the story I’m telling – the story I’m leaving behind for my grandchildren to hear. It is my job to question: did today move the story forward (or backward)? did I help someone else? did I help myself? what did I learn? what did I do? And if/when I don’t have a good answer to those questions- it is my responsibility to fix it! I am writing my story by the actions I take every day, and I plan to have written a damn good one by the time this story is over…

Excuse me for a moment… I am going to go create my story…

Yes. I definitely recommend this book. Especially to someone in a slump, depression, or any type of stagnant/bad phase in their life. This book reminds you that you do have control over your life. You have the ability to make your life meaningful…do your part…