Well, I'm back with another book review and to get straight to the point - I highly recommend this one.
Summary
A Million Miles in a Thousand Years is a book by Donald Miller that essentially tells us why we aren't living our lives to the fullest.
The overarching theme that Miller works to portray to the reader is that life is all about our story and that if we learn how to live a better story, bring other people into our story, and take on the role of characters we strive to be like - we will feel as if we have lived a fulfilling life.
It's a bit strange when you begin reading because the character in the book is Donald Miller the writer...and you're reading a book by - Donald Miller - the writer. However, once you start to delve into the book you learn that the story begins on Donald's character as an overweight, single, grungy writer just surviving off of the publishing payout from his last release - a personal memoir.
While in this slump, Miller is approached by two screenplay writers who want to turn his memoir into a movie. At first take, Miller is hesitant due to the sheer irony of someone wanting to pay to see a movie about his life.
After agreeing to work with the two writers, he begins to learn a tremendous amount from them about the way to construct a movie in such a way that people become enthralled with it. He learns how a good story can capture an audiences attention and keep them on the edge of their seat until the very end.
However, most importantly, he learns the way in which a character develops over the course of the story, and how a seemingly boring movie about his life could turn his character into the most captivating and courageous character in the story.
This lesson of character development is then brought into Miller's own life. The remainder of the book is a compilation of stories about his life after this lesson and how he was able to acknowledge the character development that needed to take place within himself.
Donald Miller teaches us through humor, sadness, and humility how we can all learn to live a better story.
Notable Quotes - Sorry, but there's a lot.
"Somehow we realize that great stories are told in conflict, but we are unwilling to embrace the potential greatness of the story we are actually in. We think God is unjust, rather than a master storyteller."
"Your brain doesn't stop growing until you're twenty-six, so from birth to twenty-six, God is slowly turning the lights on, and you're groggy and pointing at things saying circle and blue and car and then sex and job and health care. The experience is so slow you could easily come to believe life isn't that big of a deal, that life isn't staggering. What I'm saying is I think life is staggering and we're just used to it. We all are like spoiled children no longer impressed with the gifts we're given - it's just another sunset, just another rainstorm moving in over the mountain, just another child being born, just another funeral."
"...that we were designed to live through something rather than to attain something, and the thing we were meant to live through was designed to change us. The point of a story is the character arc, the change."
"People love to have lived a great story, but few people like the work it takes to make it happen. But joy costs pain."
"Without a disrupting incident that disrupts their comfort, they won't enter into a story. They have to get fired from their job or be forced to sign up for a marathon. A ring has to be purchased. A home has to be sold. The character has to jump into the story, into the discomfort and fear, otherwise the story will never happen."
"The ambitions we have will become the stories we live. If you want to know what a person's story is about, just ask them what they want."
"The reward you get from a story is always less than you thought it would be, and the work is harder than you imagined. The point of a story is never about the ending, remember. It's about your character getting molded in the hard work of the middle."
Key Takeaways
Donald Miller takes us on a journey through the life of a man destined for change. All the while, he teaches his readers how they can become the character they've always imagined and live a story they'll remember forever.
Miller also reminds us on numerous occasions that our story isn't about the reward we receive from having lived it, but the journey that we were able to experience through living out that story.
As I approach my life going forward, I'll revisit this book to keep the messages it portrays at the forefront of my mind. I'll do my best to remember that my character development is far from over, and that the stories I've yet to live out will make me the protagonist that I've always dreamt of.
Again, I highly recommend giving this one a read. Feel free to click on the links above to purchase through Amazon.
If you haven't checked out my prior book review on Dark Pools by Scott Patterson, please click here to give it a read.
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Vin
Sources/Images: Amazon
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