A Million Miles in a Thousand Years

This book had some really good lines about the nature of story and about life. Unfortunately, and I don't know how to articulate this in a more polite way, but the author just came across like an idiot constantly. I say this with no malice. Some people are not smart. The author was determined to make himself seem like one of said people.

I'm unsure if it was a narrative decision in order to have information relayed to the audience feel as if he was learning at the same time, or if Miller was just honest about how he was a man in his forties who knew absolutely nothing. It felt like every chapter he had to have basic things explained to him. He says he spends most of his time going to movies and then does not understand the most basic, no-shit things about them. He actually calls a scriptwriter back to have him explain to him the concept that “story needs conflict” again because he didn't fully understand it the first time it was explained to him. Dude, it's your book - just pretend you already knew some stuff. Leave this part out.

Anyway, I skimmed the back half of this book because I was secretly afraid if I read a book about an idiot too closely that I would also become an idiot. Jury's still out.

4/10