It seems like every book I have read this sumer has been my new summer favorite, each one just as good as the one before it! I have read nothing but great books this summer, The Fountianhead, The Stranger, God is Not One, and now A Million Miles In A Thousand Years.
I would like to begin by thanking Todd Lesher for encouraging me to read this book, I had seen it and wanted to read it, but without his encouragement I would have never picked it up.
Donald Miller is a great writer. I read his most famous book Blue Like Jazz a few years back after being encouraged by another mentor at church. Miller likes to play to the side of Christians which is casual and spiritual at the same time, relating spirituality through stories and conversations rather than fire and brimstone sermons. He writes in a very different manner and thats what makes him intriguing.
In A Million Miles In A Thousand Years Miller tells the story of story. The concept originates through his new friends Steve and Ben who are movie producers. One day they come to Portland OR where Don lives to ask him if they can make a movie of his life, based on his book Blue Like Jazz. There’s only one catch, they think his life needs some spicing up a bit, some obstacles and climaxes and editing in general. This sets in motion an entire chain of events which compel Don to “live a better story” from story seminars with famous Hollywood screenwriters, to hiking the Inca Trail in Peru, to simply “getting the girl.” Miller really conveys the importance of living your life like a story, because thats the way God intended it to be lived.
This book, much like his NY Times best seller Blue Like Jazz is a wonderful ramble through Don’s life experience around the time the script for the movie was being written. And also much like Blue Like Jazz it makes for a thoroughly enjoyable book! In the words of Rob Bell “I felt like this book read me more than I read it.”
Beyond only being enjoyable A Million Miles In A Thousand Years sets out a difficult challenge: to go out and live your story, which if you read the book, you will understand just how simultaneously blissful and terrifying that can be.
I would 100% recommend A Million Miles In A Thousand Years to Anyone without stipulation or reserve. It is just a great read: intellectual, challenging, enjoyable, throughout provoking, and stimulating all through!
(I’m also looking forward to the Blue Like Jazz movie! Check it out!)
