Million Miles in a Thousand Years

by Donald Miller

After writing a successful memoir, Donald Miller's life stalled. During what should have been the height of his success, he found himself unwilling to get out of bed, avoiding responsibility, even questioning the meaning of life. But when two movie producers proposed turning his memoir into a movie, he 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, to reinvent himself so nobody shrugs their shoulders when the credits roll. Through heart-wrenching honesty and hilarious self-inspection, Donald Miller takes readers through the life that emerges when it turns from boring reality into meaningful narrative.

Miller goes from sleeping all day to riding his bike across America, from living in romantic daydreams to fearful encounters with love, from wasting his money to founding a nonprofit with a passionate cause. Guided by a host of outlandish but very real characters, Miller shows us how to get a second chance at life the first time around. A Million Miles in a Thousand Years is a rare celebration of the beauty of life.

• ISBN10: 162765688X
• ISBN13: 9781627656887
• Publish Date: 7 March 2011 (first published 1 September 2009)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 27 July 2021
• Imprint: Perfection Learning
• Format: Hardcover (Library Binding)
• Pages: 304
• Language: English

Reviews

[adamfortuna]

I love the power of a personal vision, story or goal. Whether in a job or my personal life, I feel lost without one. Donald Miller comes at this idea from a perspective I’ve never seen before - by learning how to write a good story and applying that to his own life.

What could have been a dry, goal oriented book is actually a hilarious, fun, brilliantly written autobiography. I loved how Miller recognized and wrote about the littlest moments and somehow jumped around time without it seeming out of place.

His take on advertising was brought back to stories too:

Advertising and marketing try to sell us a story that by buying their products, OUR story will match their perfect one.

If you can live a better story, there is no reason to buy into someone else’s. Find a story you want to live and live it.