A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life
4.5/5
()
About this ebook
After the publication of his wildly successful memoir, Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller's life began to stall. During what should have been the height of his success, he found himself avoiding responsibility and even questioning the meaning of life. But when two producers proposed turning his memoir into a movie, Miller found himself launched into a new story filled with risk, possibility, beauty, and meaning.
A Million Miles in a Thousand Years chronicles Miller's rare opportunity to edit his life into a great story and to reinvent himself so nobody shrugs their shoulders when the credits roll. When his producers begin fictionalizing Don's life for the film--changing a meandering memoir into a structured narrative--the real-life Don starts a journey to make his actual life into a better story.
In this book, we have a front-row seat to Miller's journey--from sleeping all day to riding his bike across America, from living in romantic daydreams to facing love head-on, from wasting his money to founding a life-changing nonprofit.
Guided by a host of outlandish but very real characters, Miller teaches us:
- Why God hasn't fixed us yet
- The power of speaking something into nothing
- The redemptive beauty that can come from tragic circumstances
- How to get a second chance at life the first time around
Through heart-wrenching honesty and hilarious self-inspection, Miller takes readers through the life that emerges when it turns from boring reality into a meaningful narrative.
Donald Miller
Donald Miller is the founder of The Mentoring Project, an organization that helps churches start mentoring programs and pairs mentors with boys in need. He is the author of several books including New York Times bestsellers Scary Close, Blue Like Jazz, and A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. He is a frequent speaker, appearing at events such as the Women of Faith Conference, The Democratic National Convention, and Harvard University. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee with his wife and dogs.
Read more from Donald Miller
Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Marketing Made Simple: A Step-by-Step StoryBrand Guide for Any Business Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow to Grow Your Small Business: A 6-Step Plan to Help Your Business Take Off Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Scary Close: Dropping the Act and Finding True Intimacy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hero on a Mission: A Path to a Meaningful Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Social Media Success for Every Brand: The Five Pillars That Turn Posts into Profits Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSearching for God Knows What Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGood Money Revolution: How to Make More Money to Do More Good Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Secret Society of Success: Stop Chasing the Spotlight and Learn to Enjoy Your Work (and Life) Again Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFather Fiction: Chapters for a Fatherless Generation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Through Painted Deserts: Light, God, and Beauty on the Open Road Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fatherless Generation: Redeeming the Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5One Thousand Wells: How an Audacious Goal Taught Me to Love the World Instead of Save It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to A Million Miles in a Thousand Years
Related ebooks
Scary Close: Dropping the Act and Finding True Intimacy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hero on a Mission: A Path to a Meaningful Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Soundtracks: The Surprising Solution to Overthinking Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Common Path to Uncommon Success: A Roadmap to Financial Freedom and Fulfillment Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Father Fiction: Chapters for a Fatherless Generation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Find Your Red Thread Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dream Big: Know What You Want, Why You Want It, and What You’re Going to Do About It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Through Painted Deserts: Light, God, and Beauty on the Open Road Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Straight-Line Leadership: Tools for Living with Velocity and Power in Turbulent Times Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Reclaiming Control Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Art of Work: A Proven Path to Discovering What You Were Meant to Do Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Beauty of Discomfort: How What We Avoid Is What We Need Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Hell Yeah or No: what's worth doing Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life through the Power of Storytelling Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Joy of Missing Out: Live More by Doing Less Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Smartcuts: The Breakthrough Power of Lateral Thinking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sparked: Discover Your Unique Imprint for Work that Makes You Come Alive Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Power of Fifty Bits: The New Science of Turning Good Intentions into Positive Results Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Anything You Want: 40 lessons for a new kind of entrepreneur Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Your Music and People: creative and considerate fame Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow to Begin: Start Doing Something That Matters Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Superfans: The Easy Way to Stand Out, Grow Your Tribe, And Build a Successful Business Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5One Last Talk: Why Your Truth Matters and How to Speak It Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAccidental Genius: Using Writing to Generate Your Best Ideas, Insight, and Content Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Today We Are Rich: Harnessing the Power of Total Confidence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The In-Between: Embracing the Tension Between Now and the Next Big Thing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Chasing Failure: How Falling Short Sets You Up for Success Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
New Age & Spirituality For You
The Screwtape Letters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mere Christianity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Abolition of Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Grief Observed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Alchemist: A Graphic Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Secret History of the World Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Don't Believe Everything You Think: Why Your Thinking Is The Beginning & End Of Suffering Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Mastery of Self: A Toltec Guide to Personal Freedom Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Four Loves Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As A Man Thinketh: Three Perspectives Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Calendar of Wisdom: Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul, Written and Se Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Reflections on the Psalms Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Living Resistance: An Indigenous Vision for Seeking Wholeness Every Day Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5As a Man Thinketh Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Journey of Souls: Case Studies of Life Between Lives Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Gospel of Mary Magdalene Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Three Questions: How to Discover and Master the Power Within You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth Awakening to Your Life's Purpose Summary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You Were Born for This: Astrology for Radical Self-Acceptance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Writing to Wake the Soul: Opening the Sacred Conversation Within Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Celebration of Discipline, Special Anniversary Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The House Witch: Your Complete Guide to Creating a Magical Space with Rituals and Spells for Hearth and Home Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Conversations With God, Book 3: Embracing the Love of the Universe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for A Million Miles in a Thousand Years
37 ratings16 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I really struggled with this book in the beginning. Like, almost didn't finish reading it, and I have only quit reading a book about half a dozen times out of hundreds of books. And, because of that, I decided to give it 4-4.5 stars instead of 5. But it's a fantastic book if you can get past the first 40 pages or so. It definitely gets better. I got a lot of little nuggets of wisdom and appreciation for living a good story. I may even need to buy this one for the reference to the simple yet compelling wisdom found in tidbit in it. I even cried at one point, and had a few laughs. I recommend this to Christian readers especially.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Very inspiring, I enjoyed a lot while reading it, and I will start to edit my own life.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Is life a series of random events or something more? Donald Miller gets an opportunity to edit his life when an earlier memoir Blue Like Jazz is being adapted as a movie. The same concepts he reveals can be applied to a movie, a book, or a life. We are acting out a story in which our actions are more important than our intentions or thoughts. A story involves a character who wants to attempt something difficult and overcomes conflict to do it.There is nothing new in those ideas. The real value of the book is how the author gets himself off the couch and actually does something about recreating the story of his life. His first efforts were small. Buying a bike and getting in shape. But as he achieved small successes, he increased his goals. Making a connection with the father who abandoned him. Riding his bike cross-country to raise money to build wells in Africa. He writes with humor and candor about the people he meets along the way and about the faith that sustains him. I like his approach in this book. It contains an important message, it's well written, and it doesn't preach. Donald Miller is a Christian who lets his life do his witnessing for him.
2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Like BLJ, Miller as assembled a collection of observations and ponderings around an event to make it enjoyable, meaningful and touching. Faced with editing his book for a film, Miller finds he does not have much of a story. He goes about trying to create said story by finding his dad and embarking on a bicycle journey across the continent. His observations about like are very meaningful and parts had me tearing up thinking of how my story went terribly wrong. Not an overtly religious book, but, man, Miller really speaks to me.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Donald Miller learns to live his life and write the story of that life, of the process of living, but not to live a life to write the story. Life is what we make of it. Risk is an inherent part of our stories. Donald Miller is a good story teller. A Million Miles flows easily. We experience his stories as he jump starts his life, and we learn the components of what goes into telling a strong story. I originally picked up this book for tips on writing memoir. I finished it feeling more knowledgeable about life and satisfied at time well spent.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It took me about 200 pages for it to finally click, but when it did I realized what Miller had astutely crafted. Seeing our lives from the point of view of our storyteller, and putting ourselves in the business of story craft is a masterful stroke. It brings together so many ideas from suffering to Imago Dei, to spiritual direction. I wish he would have made the Romans 5 connection that suffering leads to perseverance, perseverance to character, and character to hope, but he connected all the dots up to that point. Having the perspective to see sub-stories and mini-climaxes within our lives proved to be one of the most helpful of ideas.It's not overtly Christian as, say, Searching for God Knows What, but the book, especially the end, is undeniably Christian--it's just Christianity without the filter of Evangelical piety, which as a member of a fundamentalist church, I say can be refreshing.Unfortunately, probably doesn't have the broad appeal Blue Like Jazz does, but its a great read, especially for avid readers of fiction and writers.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Although it often takes me a chapter or two to get used to Donald Miller's writing style, I find his work forthcoming and easy to read. This book - about living a better story - is a great way to jump start a new year. A year (2012) that I believe is going to be my best year yet!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I read Miller’s book, Blue Like Jazz, a few years back and was surprised to find some I could relate to so easily. This one is no different. He struggles with his faith, etc. and is completely honest with his thoughts. He also recently got a puppy, which made his story particularly accessible for me. He talks about searching for his father, traveling to Manchu Picchu, helping mentor kids, getting into shape and working on a screen play for a movie version of his book. He suggests that people will live better lives if they think of them in terms of making them a “better story,” which is an interesting concept. One friend decides to do just that and moves his family to another country to work as a missionary. There are no earth-shattering realizations in this book, just interesting observations and experiences that can be applied to almost anyone's life.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5When you stop expecting people to be perfect, you can like them for who they are. And when you stop expecting material possessions to complete you, you'd be surprised at how much pleasure you get in material possessions. And when you stop expecting God to end all your troubles, you'd be surprised how much you like spending time with God.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This book was written in a light, humorous style, but had some very intense lessons. The author was trying to determine what was important in life. He discovered along the way that it was the impact we make on others and the good we do, that makes life sweet.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Life is a journey, and we are all part of a much larger story - something we write each day.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5For some reason, I just couldn't get into this book. It makes a few good points, but it's beyond me.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I loved this book...while I was reading it I felt like my life was changing. And when I finished it I still wanted to continue to change my life. I recommended it to everyone I could. If I were Oprah I would have given a copy to everyone in my studio audience for a month.The book is a recount of Don Miller's experiences with two screen writers who are making a screenplay about one of his earlier books. The main concept I took away from this book was that a screenplay is like a life. The better the story, the better each one is.Miller gives a lot of examples with how he struggled to grasp that concept, he uses little snippets from his life and his friends' lives to illustrate concepts, and his writing style is so personalble, friendly and honest you feel like you're just sitting in a diner having a cup of coffee with him and a really nice chat.This book would be a great read for really anyone from young adults to senior citizens. It's inspiring, uplifting and hopeful. It's been a long time since I've read such an empowering, beautiful book. It's really worth everyone's time to read.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Donald Miller was down on his luck. The success he achieved by writing the elusive best seller did not bring the happiness he desired. Donald was avoiding life. He simply could not face the music. Eventually with the help of a few friends and a couple of movie producers Miller realizes that life or your "story" is what you make it. However, instead of facing the music, Miller embraces it. This book was an amazing reading experience for me. Every once in awhile a book comes along that makes you re-examine yourself. This was the book for me. Miller puts his heart out on a limb throughout the book. Good stories don't always have happy endings but Miller reinforces the fact that its the journey not the destination that is most important. This book is a must in any library. I highly reccommend this to everyone.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I have been reading Don Miller since his 'Prayer and the Art of Volkswagen Maintenance' days. This is unequivocally his best book to date - and I loved 'Blue Like Jazz.'Miller has matured since BLJ as a writer, and it appears also as a person. I was simultaneously hopeful, humbled, and repentant while reading this book
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5In Donald Miller’s A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life you will certainly find honesty if nothing else.It my policy to only promote edifying christian books. And although the book did herald the goodness and mercy of God and did encourage the reader to a better life, I cannot recommend this book as it does contain very inappropriate references.As a book reviewer for Thomas Nelson, I am required to review this book. It is my personal policy, however, to NOT disparage a writer or publisher.It is for this reason, I do not post reviews that discourage a reader to choose a book. Readers are certainly able to decide for themselves based on other reviewers posts whether they should read this book or not.