Author: Donald Miller

Book Name: A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life

I’m Glad it Wasn’t Called: Let Story Guide You: Why some lives make sense and others don’t, which was the original title for the book when Don first conceived it. (I even have the original cover art for the book, which I’ll show you at the end of the post.) I’m also glad it wasn’t called Auteur: Why some lives make sense and others don’t, which was another title they were throwing around back in the Fall of 2007.

Book Synopsis in Twitteresque 140 characters or less: While writing a movie based on his stories, Don discovers that the same elements that make up a good story, also make a good life.

Where I Bought It: Got it at a bookstore in King of Prussia, PA. (though I should note that I didn’t end up purchasing the one I bit. So somewhere there’s a copy of this book with my dental records all over it.)

Paid for With: Visa. I’ve always been a Visa guy and not a Mastercard guy. No idea why.

How Long it Took Me to Read: Not long. I read the first 40 pages in an airplane in Microsoft Word since someone had sent me a pre-release illegal copy (shh, don’t tell anyone). After I bought the book a few weeks later I read the whole thing in about a week.

Who I WOULD NOT recommend this book to: Someone on their death bed. It’s pretty inconsiderate to ask someone who’s about to die to read a book about writing a better story with their life. It’s downright rude, actually.

Who I WOULD recommend this book to: Just about everyone. Whether you’re chasing your dreams, trying to figure out what your dreams are, or enjoying the dreams you’ve caught, there’s something in here for you.

What I used for a bookmark: A candy corn. Totally screwed up the book’s binding.

What were some interesting true stories from the book: Don’s story about finding and meeting his father was huge. As you get to the end of it, you’re like, “oh crap, my eyes are about to get watery, aren’t they?” and then it’s too late. It was also fascinating to read about Don’s failed relationship that he and his fiancee broke off. Not just because it’s Don, but because rarely do successful Christian authors write about their failed relationships.

What were some interesting true stories NOT from the book: I got to hang out with Don and Susan Isaacs on their tour bus the other day, which was a lot of fun. They’re just as kind in person as they are engaging on stage, but I’m sure you figured that. Unfortunately Don was not able to put the transcript of our riveting 20-minute conversation into the book because it happened a month after the book was released. Maybe the second printing?

What was the 1 thing I’ll take from the book: I’m gonna cheat and give you 3 things. #1 is that when a character doesn’t have a good ambition, he is not in a good story. If all I want to be is a successful writer, who cares? If I’m striving to be a good father and husband who loves those around him, now we’re getting somewhere. #2 is that this really isn’t about us. God is not a supporting character in my story. This is God’s story, and I play a part in it. Changes your perspective on things. #3 is that the climax of the Christian’s story is not when they accept Christ as savior. Because after that point there is still much conflict and heartache. No, the big scene in Act 3 when it all comes together is at the wedding feast of the Lamb in heaven. Conflict here on earth isn’t against God’s will for us. He actually uses it to shape and change us on this side of eternity.

What I learned from this book that I will apply to my next book: A good title is a good title no matter where it comes from. If you’re wondering where “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years” comes from, it’s from a line in the book that you might have not even noticed, had it not been the inspiration for the book’s name. A memorable title is HUGE (and I think I finally have one for the book I’m working on…maybe.)

Expectations Going In: It’s Don Miller, so the expectations were very high.

Cannarf Rating: Despite my high expectations, the book still was an unexpected surprise. I had heard Don speak about Story before, so I wondered if some of the material would feel old and stale. On the contrary, the stories he injected into the book really helped the material make sense in a fresh way. I truly feel that anyone who reads through this book will be better off for it. Good chance I’ll wind up calling this my favorite book of his.   The Rating: +2 cannarfs. (what’s a cannarf?)

Have any of you read A Million Miles in a Thousand Years? If so, what’s your cannarf rating?

Bonus Time…here’s an early draft of the cover art for the book when it was titled, Let Story Guide You, designed by Barak Hardley:

and here’s a potential cover that Barak Hardley designed for Million Miles that Don’s blog readers thought was a little too dark. (it references a passage in the book where Don talks about how people would mourn the loss of good stories, and not non-fiction, if a Book Mobile fell off a bridge.)

Here’s a few things that caught my attention on the world wide spider web this week:

[+] Stuff Christian’s Like’s Jon Acuff blew me away this week with his post on “Refusing the Gift of the Desert Road“. Really appreciated the perspective this gave me with regards to my own journey as a writer.

[+] Speaking of perspective, I enjoyed Donald Miller’s post on leaders needing to be able to admit when they’re wrong. His blog post came in light of Robert McNamara’s death. I didn’t know much about the man, but I’ve heard that The Fog of War is worth a watch.

[+] Speaking of Robert McNamara, over at the Burnside Blog Karen Spears Zacharias wrote an inspired rebuttal to Don’s blog post that examined the other side of the coin.

[+] Speaking of things that are metal, if you’re a golfer and you’ve heard about the changes coming to the grooves in your irons, this post has all the details you could ever want.

[+] Speaking of things you might want, would you like to instantly know how far a Home Run was hit in next week’s home run derby so you can challenge your friends to a “yell out the distance of the home run as it leaves the bat” contest? Well, thanks to some newfangled doppler technology, now you will.

[+]Finally, speaking of challenging, Ben Arment continues to keep me from getting comfortable. This post on how fear can paralyze us was a nice kick in the ribs. Thanks Ben!

here’s a few things I found interesting this week online…

+ If I had a nickel for every time I had to tell someone that Donald Miller is not a part of the emergent church, I’d probably have $1.30. And I would spend it on a hash brown from McDonald’s because those things are so tasty in the morning with a coffee. Point is, I won’t have to tell people anymore. Now I’ll just point them to this post, where Don is forced to defend himself from an error-filled article in The Weekly Standard.

+ by the way, Don’s new book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, will be out this fall. You can read the first 3 chapters here.

+ This post by Brad Ruggles on “Sex, Lies, and Photoshop” last month was a good one. Remember folks, the chick on the cover of the magazine is not only made up by professional makeup artists, she’s also been photoshopped like crazy. Here’s one of the images from Brad’s post. These are not 2 copies of the exact image, but obviously they are shots from the same photo shoot. Finding the many ways they photoshopped Faith is like playing Where’s Waldo. Look at how much skinnier her left arm is, how they’ve smoothed out her face, and what they did to her skin right where it meets the top of her dress behind her left arm.

+ Tyler Stanton and I are racing to see who can get to 5,000 Twitter Followers first. Right now I have a slight lead on him 352-320 (yeah, we’ve got a looooong way to go). If you’re not on Twitter yet, stop pretending you’re too cool for it and at least give it a try. And once you’ve got an account, come follow me, and I’ll follow you back.

+ Here’s a link to a study that shows occasionally picking your nose actually makes you a better husband. (Hey, we all can dream, right?)

+ My good friend Geof has been struggling with depression for a few years now, and I’m always fascinated with the candor in which he blogs about it. I think it’s a brave thing to do, and whether you struggle with depression or not, I encourage you to read his posts on depression to gain a little more insight into it.

+ Finally, I haven’t done any videos for the site in a long time, but I plan on doing some in the future. In the meantime, here’s one from a few months ago that might be new to some of you. My miserable attempt at being sneaky

Not Quite Jason Bourne from Bryan Allain on Vimeo.

So you know how Derek Webb has been hiding pieces of his new music all over the country for fans to find? (just say ‘yes’ so we can move on)

Well, a few minutes ago on his Twitter, author Donald Miller made a similar announcement regarding his new book that releases in October, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years.

We are working on a plan to hide several “kinko’s” print outs of a million miles in a thousand years, autographed, all over the country.

twitter followers will be notified as to where they are. more later.

Think Derek’s latest adventure has influenced Don to have some fun as well? Well this picture, taken of the two of them celebrating Derek’s 35th birthday this week, is all the proof I need.

What do you think? Not necessarily ‘controversial’ like Derek’s deal…but pretty cool nonetheless. I’d love to get my hands on a kinko’s copy of Million Miles. Especially if it was well before the release date.

Oh, and this seems like as good a time as any to remind you that I am still the world record holder for the “Person who is Photographed with Don and Derek Looking More Unamused than They’ve Ever Been”

Like Dimaggio’s 56, it’s a record that might never be broken.