Book reviews

These are some book reviews for Discovering Beautiful, culled from various places on the internet, as well as from emails I’ve received. I haven’t made any of them up.

“Rory Miller is a Discovery, a young man who has successfully conveyed a four year experience searching for adventure and meaning to a life stance of disillusionment and confusion where most young people find themselves, and has risen out of the pages of this enormously readable book as a major writer. Rarely has a book, let alone a first book, bubbled with so much verismo, wild humor, daring naughty deeds, investigations into a number of interpersonal encounters, and ended up with a credible awakening to that spiritual enlightenment we all seek but seldom have the courage to pursue. DISCOVERING BEAUTIFUL is youth distilled, a superbly written journey toward understanding the beauty of the universe and its spiritual core. And the joy is that all along the way Miller takes the reader into countless experiences that challenge the mind while they entertain with prose bordering on poetic.

Rory Miller is at book’s beginning in 1996 a listless, bored Yorkshireman whose desire for change results in an aborted move to London to boarding a plane to America, landing in New York where his road trip begins. What was to have been a month long hiatus ends up a four year journey throughout the United States (via cranky Oldsmobile, freight train hops, joltingly real automobile accidents, etc), Canada, and Mexico, encountering other lost souls and some significant mind altering experiences and people, ending up a lad so full of joy that his final experiences in 2000 include snowy mountain moments where he is able to completely disregard corporal pain and discomfort by laughing out loud in the thrill of being at one with the essence of the Universe.

But what makes this book so different form other ‘journeys to self discovery’ is Miller’s ability to describe memories of his past sparked by encountered incidents of the present, giving us very close reminders of those feelings we discovered reading ‘Catcher in the Rye’ and ‘Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man’. He makes us so comfortable in his skin that we become Rory Miller and fall pall mall through his adventures as if they were our own. That is the catch that makes this well written book so contagious: his jolts and bumps as well as his anguish and awakening are palpable because they become our own. Rory Miller is a writer to watch - and I’m not sure he even knows that!”

-- Grady Harp, Amazon Top Reviewer


“One of those books that you just rip through because it’s so enthralling. Recounting a remarkable four years of a young Yorkshireman’s journey through America and his encounters with nature, the road and spiritual growth, Discovering Beautiful details Miller’s vast and varied experiences of travel in a foreign land and charts his journey, emotionally and spiritually as well as geographically.

It’s well written and thoroughly entertaining, and reading it I felt absorbed into the author’s world, through his terrifying record behind the wheel and frequent encounters with the law, to the relationships he develops with the people he meets along the way.

Can’t recommend this book highly enough - I’ve just ordered a further two copies to give to friends (the first I gave to a stranger this morning having finished it myself).”

-- S.K. Balkham, on Amazon


“Beautifully written, at times shocking, laugh out loud funny, moving and often thought provoking. A journey across America to Mexico over 4 years wonderfully represented in this book. Really gives a great idea as to how expansive America is and how you can encounter many diverse and wonderful people by chance.

A brave, honest book. I read it and passed it on, I feel it’s important to share wonderful with others. A must read...”

-- Luan Bushby, on Amazon


“From the start, this book grips you & takes you through a variety of emotions. At the outset, the initial thought is that we’re reading about a misguided, lost and thoroughly irresponsible human being... but as the book progresses you travel along with the author, witnessing him metamorphasise into a person almost unrecognisable from the beginning of the book. Once you start reading, it’s very difficult to put the book down.

I often found myself using the ‘just one more chapter’ rule!! From the beautiful descriptions of his travels across the USA, to the author’s eventual spiritual enlightenment, it really is a riveting and thought-provoking read. The boy from Yorkshire done good!!”

-- Little Blonde Rock Chick, on Amazon


“I loved this book, and found it a real eye opener. How Miller made it from day to day with not a great deal of cash, not knowing where the next meal was coming from, or the next bed was going to be. I’d recommend Discovering Beautiful to anybody, how a young Yorkshireman experienced life on the road and having an amazing time as well. Kind of makes me want to up sticks and give it a go myself.”

-- S.P. Hanna, on Amazon


“The human imagination is a fickle, dangerous and unknown thing. It brought the geography of Antarctica into the modern world as Shackleton’s Mecca. For the human imagination, it is danger that is appealing and it is the survival through the journey that makes impossibilities seductive. Rory Miller’s book, Discovering Beautiful: On the Road to Somewhere is a complete seduction. His danger is found and re-found in the American West - and onward through Mexico searching the physical and metaphysical limits of the human body and psyche. Miller’s work is an echo of all boys who’ve dreamed of adventure.

Miller travels American by foot, car after misused car, a stubborn donkey and finally the thumb - exercising his saddle joint to make his way as a waiter, a jailbird, a stunt cowboy, a sometimes saint in disguise behind a wilderness man’s beard. He discovers his destiny through a flip of a quarter that leads him illegally back into the States three times and has him homeless, penniless, a ruffian of the New York streets, an alcoholic in the Virginia hills, a lover, an exhibitionist and yet his wanderlust going un-satiated he begins his life anew when he meets a hugging saint. This book marks the path of a man who dared his dreams across an ocean and a continent.”

-- Leah M. Welch, on Amazon US


“Nice and inspiring book. This is one of those readings that sticks in you for weeks. It is not only about all the adventures, fun and drama that it holds but also the road to an spiritual awakening that tells you about the magic of being alive and letting life be your guide. Miller shares a process of moving from an agitated mind to a loving heart in the stunning scenery of North America with such an honesty that at times it may seem shocking.”

-- Ana Ballesteros, on Amazon US


“This guy may be the “Kerouac” of this generation! This book is such a fun read, full adventure, tragedy, comedy, of youthful shenanigans, brushes with the law, plenty of hitchhiking and train hopping but unlike anything else I’ve read along these lines it culminates into a genuine spiritual awakening. There is something in here for everyone!”

-- Shawn Boland, on Amazon US


“If you have ever wanted to just abandon it all and seek your future you should read this book. The story follows a young man with no regard for himself through adventures in the USA that will make your hair stand on end, touch your heart, have you laughing, bring you to tears and having you saying ‘Yes’ all at the same time. It’s a story of growing up, of a yearning for unconditional love and of a special kind of peace that can only come through life changing experience. I can’t wait for the next book, Miller is truly a gifted writer.”

-- Mimig, on Amazon CA


“Just finished reading this book and wanted to say it’s one of the most affecting books I’ve read in a long time. There’s so much lightness in its final pages it almost hurts. Beautiful.”

-- from a reader in an email (apologies for losing name)


“Amazon recommended me this book and on spur of a moment bought it - something to read on the plane to Thailand! Amazing and beautiful such a great read! It is the first travel book I have really read gave some great ideas for an adventure to be had hopefully I won’t get in as much shit as he did as don’t think I’d be so good at getting out of it! Great book - lovvveeeed it.”

-- maybe in an email, not sure (whoops)


“Just finished this book, what a ride Miller’s having. Being from small town Yorkshire myself and bursting with wanderlust, I could relate to it all too well. Haven’t quite hit nirvana just yet, but working on it. Glad to see so much kindness exists in the world, same old misery on the bbc everyday. Thanks for the light.”

-- I think this was on facebook


“‘And like so many times on this trip I was five years old, whooping and shouting, singing and laughing and embracing this life with a delirious passion.’ If there’s one line in this tale that sums up Rory Miller’s adventure, it is perhaps this one. The reader, fully engaged with the writer, feels every bump, every hangover and every heartfelt apology as Rory charges his way through the US, walking through rattlesnake deserts and riding with self-confessed psychopaths on a journey that will leave you clamouring for more.

Starting as a young man in 1996, Rory heads off from quiet Yorkshire to the US, eager for adventure and transformation - nothing unusual there then. Yet, what begins as a plan to stay for a mere month turns into a mega-adventure of four years, and sees Rory travelling across the country bound for Mexico, taking in all manner of thrills and spills along the way.

Poles apart from many other ‘self-discovery’ style travel books, this one is painfully honest, terrifying and amusing all at once. The author narrates the tale with an ingratiating style and refreshing honesty, uniting the events of the story with vivid accounts of memory to create a compelling and engrossing end product. A true rollercoaster of a travel book, and one to relish.”

-- Caroline Eden, Real Travel Magazine


“Hey Rory, loved your book - was very inspiring and I hope one day to do the same. I’m 21 now, never travelled, and sounds like a good idea but don’t think I have the balls to do what you did: that’s one crazy journey, especially towards the end with all the spirituality and stuff. Anyways, thanks for taking the time to make that book, it really is one of the best I’ve read.”

-- Adam Taylor, via email