Anyone looking for a good read?
I am a what you might call a "binge reader". Meaning that go through phases when I am obsessed with reading. I can't get enough of the words, you know? And then after I've had my fill I just stop. And maybe I won't pick up a book for months...Am I weird? Well, I think I might need to loosen my belt, because I can feel it coming on...
A little over a week ago we loaded the kids into the minivan and headed out on our annual post Christmas road trip to the land of our childhood...St. Joseph, Missouri. I'm sure you've heard of it. No? Ok. Well, Ryan (my guy) handed me a book and told me I should, no, MUST, read it. So, I obliged and packed the book away for the trip.
This book was SO. GOOD. I loved it! I actually read it in about 5 hours! I'm going to tell you a little bit about it. I hope you'll get yourself a copy and read it too. I don't think you'll be disappointed...
Shall we get on with it? yes? okay, here we go...
The book is called A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller.
(Maybe you've read him? Blue Like Jazz?)
It looks like this...
Synopsis...in a nutshell...
After the success of Donald Miller's, memoir, Blue Like Jazz, the author, himself, is approached by a team of screenwriters (one of whom I visualize as Leo from That 70's Show.) who want to write a movie about his life. As Don learns what elements are necessary to create a great movie story he realizes that those same elements are what can make a great Life Story as well. Inspired not to live a boring life, Don sets out to create memorable moments in his life story. Hiking the grueling Inca Trail in Peru, cycling across the United States for the cause of Clean Water and facing a lifelong fear of finding his absent father, are a few of the inspiring moments that Don shares with readers.
There are a couple of reasons that I loved this book.
1. Donald Miller is an excellent writer. Funny like a close, personal friend one moment, and seriously insightful and wise the next. The best of both worlds, wouldn't you say?
2. The whole point of this book! Inspiring me to make more of my Life Story than a series of mundane moments. AND, I want my kids to have exciting Life Stories too, so until they are able to write their own stories, I'm responsible for theirs too.
May I treat you to a few of my favorite selections? Enjoy...
If I have a hope, it's that God sat over the dark nothing and wrote you and me, specifically, into the story and put us in with the sunset and the rainstorm as though to say, "enjoy your place in my story. The beauty of it means you matter, and you can create within it even as I have created you."
...the Writer, who was not me, was trying to make a better story, a more meaningful series of experiences I could live through.
...when you are a better character, your story gets better too.
I began to realize the stuff I spent money on indicated the stories I was living. By that I mean the stuff I spent money on was, in many ways, the sum of my ambitions. And those ambitions weren't the stuff of good stories...
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. If we don't want anything, we are living boring stories, and if we want a Roomba vacuum cleaner, we are living stupid stories. If it won't work in a story, it won't work in life.
We think stories are about getting money and security, but the truth is all comes down to relationships....I knew a story was calling me. I knew I was going to have to see if my father was alive. And once you know what it takes to live a better story, you don't have a choice.
A good storyteller doesn't just tell a better story...he invites other people into the story with him, giving them a better story too.
...I was a tree in the story of a forest, and it was arrogant for me to believe any differently. Ad he told me the story of a forest is better than the story of a tree.
...the night after we talked, Jason couldn't sleep. He thought about the story his daughter was living....He realized he hadn't provided a better role for his daughter. He hadn't mapped out a story for his family. And so his daughter had chosen another story, a story in which she was wanted, even if she was only being used. In the absence of a family story, she'd chosen a story in which there was risk and adventure, rebellion and independence. "She's not a bad girl...she was just choosing the best story available to her."
If I got any comfort as I set out on my first story, it was that in nearly every story, the protagonist is transformed. He's a jerk in the beginning and nice at the end, a coward at the beginning and brave at the end. If the character doesn't change, the story hasn't happened yet...the point of the story is the character arc...the change.
...I'll tell these things to God, and he'll laugh, I think, and he'll remind me of the parts [of the story] I forgot, the parts that were his favorites. We'll sit and remember my story together, and the he'll stand and put his arms around me and say, "well done," and that he liked my story. And my soul wont' be thirsty anymore.
* * * * * *
You know that feeling you get when you're looking dead on into a new year? One might say, resolute. I don't know if it's just that the beginning of something that can be characterized as "new" brings on an immense sense of hope and renewal. A chance to change or improve. That feeling that you haven't screwed it up yet. I like that feeling. Reading this book at the dawn of a brand new year added so much to the experience for me.
So there you have it...A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, by Donald Miller. You will love it.
Get it here.
Love,
S
PS: do you even like book reviews?
So, it's been more than a year since you posted this review. I trusted your judgement that this was a good book but still never picked it up to actually read it. Boy, am I sad I waited sooo long. I, too, love this book. Your quotes were some of my favorite parts of this book. So inspiring! I want a more interesting life story as a result of Donald Miller's book. Want to live a more interesting life story together? Love you, friend!
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