Great stories deserve to be heard.
LitReading brings you a complete short stories, unabridged and narrated by veteran broadcaster and voice actor Don McDonald. Hear the masters of the form, including Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, O. Henry, Edith Wharton, Anton Chekhov, Kate Chopin, William Faulkner, Katherine Mansfield, Stephen Crane, Saki, Bret Harte and Virginia Woolf. Along with them come overlooked gems from the golden age of American, British and Russian literature that deserve a second hearing.
Each episode is one full story, from a few minutes to a deeply immersive hour. Think of it as a free audiobook of short fiction, performed with warmth and clarity and just enough character to bring every voice to life. Play it on a commute, a walk or a quiet evening. It also makes good bedtime listening for grown-ups.
Come for a story. Leave with a world.
Help a good story travel. If LitReading has kept you company, tap Follow in Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast app. It's free, and new stories arrive automatically. A quick 5-star rating or a one-line review helps more than you'd guess, because that's how new listeners find us. And if a story stayed with you, send this episode to one friend who loves to read. That's how this show grows.
LitReading is part of Short Storyverses (shortstoryverses.com), a family of podcasts for people who love great storytelling:
Search for any of them wherever you get your podcasts.
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]]>Great stories deserve to be heard.
LitReading brings you a complete short stories, unabridged and narrated by veteran broadcaster and voice actor Don McDonald. Hear the masters of the form, including Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, O. Henry, Edith Wharton, Anton Chekhov, Kate Chopin, William Faulkner, Katherine Mansfield, Stephen Crane, Saki, Bret Harte and Virginia Woolf. Along with them come overlooked gems from the golden age of American, British and Russian literature that deserve a second hearing.
Each episode is one full story, from a few minutes to a deeply immersive hour. Think of it as a free audiobook of short fiction, performed with warmth and clarity and just enough character to bring every voice to life. Play it on a commute, a walk or a quiet evening. It also makes good bedtime listening for grown-ups.
Come for a story. Leave with a world.
Help a good story travel. If LitReading has kept you company, tap Follow in Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast app. It's free, and new stories arrive automatically. A quick 5-star rating or a one-line review helps more than you'd guess, because that's how new listeners find us. And if a story stayed with you, send this episode to one friend who loves to read. That's how this show grows.
LitReading is part of Short Storyverses (shortstoryverses.com), a family of podcasts for people who love great storytelling:
Search for any of them wherever you get your podcasts.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
]]>WARNING: Contains graphic animal and human violence.
Follow and each new story will show up in your library as soon as it's released. No searching, no remembering.
This show is one corner of Short Storyverses, a family of fiction podcasts. Some lean literary. Some are funny. Some will keep you up with the lights on, and some belong by the fire in December. There are classics nobody reads anymore and should, and original stories you won't hear anywhere else. They're all read by Don McDonald from his studio booth, and all short enough to finish on a drive, a walk, or a sleepless night.
Come explore at shortstoryverses.com. Pick a universe. Stay a while.
If you enjoyed this story, buy me an e-book!
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/donmcdonald
or click FOLLOW
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]]>WARNING: Contains graphic animal and human violence.
Follow and each new story will show up in your library as soon as it's released. No searching, no remembering.
This show is one corner of Short Storyverses, a family of fiction podcasts. Some lean literary. Some are funny. Some will keep you up with the lights on, and some belong by the fire in December. There are classics nobody reads anymore and should, and original stories you won't hear anywhere else. They're all read by Don McDonald from his studio booth, and all short enough to finish on a drive, a walk, or a sleepless night.
Come explore at shortstoryverses.com. Pick a universe. Stay a while.
If you enjoyed this story, buy me an e-book!
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/donmcdonald
or click FOLLOW
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]]>Then he notices how everyone else is taking it.
Philip K. Dick wrote "The Hanging Stranger" in 1953, a year when plenty of Americans had started keeping an eye on their neighbors. Seventy years on, it still makes you check who's standing behind you.
Philip K. Dick was born in Chicago in 1928 and spent most of his life in California, writing fast, living broke, and asking one question in more than forty novels and over a hundred short stories: what's real? He won the Hugo Award for The Man in the High Castle in 1963, yet for most of his life he was paid like a pulp writer and read like a cult figure. He died in March 1982, a few months before Blade Runner, adapted from his Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, reached theaters. After that the rest of the world caught up. Total Recall, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, and The Man in the High Castle all came from his pages. The paranoia turned out to be prophecy.
If you want more stories like this one, and plenty that are nothing like it, they're all waiting for you at shortstoryverses.com. Go have a look around. Just don't stand under any lampposts on the way there.
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]]>Then he notices how everyone else is taking it.
Philip K. Dick wrote "The Hanging Stranger" in 1953, a year when plenty of Americans had started keeping an eye on their neighbors. Seventy years on, it still makes you check who's standing behind you.
Philip K. Dick was born in Chicago in 1928 and spent most of his life in California, writing fast, living broke, and asking one question in more than forty novels and over a hundred short stories: what's real? He won the Hugo Award for The Man in the High Castle in 1963, yet for most of his life he was paid like a pulp writer and read like a cult figure. He died in March 1982, a few months before Blade Runner, adapted from his Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, reached theaters. After that the rest of the world caught up. Total Recall, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, and The Man in the High Castle all came from his pages. The paranoia turned out to be prophecy.
If you want more stories like this one, and plenty that are nothing like it, they're all waiting for you at shortstoryverses.com. Go have a look around. Just don't stand under any lampposts on the way there.
If you enjoyed this story, buy me an e-book!
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/donmcdonald
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]]>Set in Montana Territory, 1868, Murder of Crows is a western—but not the kind you remember from Saturday matinees. The dead don’t rest. The land doesn’t forget. And the crows? They remember everything.
Author's Note
There’s an old belief that crows remember faces. That they mourn their dead. That they never forget a slight.
It was early morning when a murder of crows descended on the sycamore outside my bedroom window, their cries so sharp and relentless they pulled me from sleep with a strange sense of dread. I lay there, half-conscious and irritated, staring at the ceiling as their screams echoed through the glass. And in that moment—quietly, almost reflexively—I had a thought I wasn’t proud of: Maybe this murder deserves one of its own.
From that flash of anger came something unexpected: a story. Murder of Crows began as a whisper of guilt and folklore. Though it draws faint inspiration from the life and legend of Jeremiah Johnson, this tale is entirely imagined—fiction through and through. But like many stories, its roots are tangled in real emotion: grief, memory, regret… and the uncanny way the natural world sometimes stares back.
As for the birds? They haven’t left.
They’re still watching.
Just outside my window.
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]]>Set in Montana Territory, 1868, Murder of Crows is a western—but not the kind you remember from Saturday matinees. The dead don’t rest. The land doesn’t forget. And the crows? They remember everything.
Author's Note
There’s an old belief that crows remember faces. That they mourn their dead. That they never forget a slight.
It was early morning when a murder of crows descended on the sycamore outside my bedroom window, their cries so sharp and relentless they pulled me from sleep with a strange sense of dread. I lay there, half-conscious and irritated, staring at the ceiling as their screams echoed through the glass. And in that moment—quietly, almost reflexively—I had a thought I wasn’t proud of: Maybe this murder deserves one of its own.
From that flash of anger came something unexpected: a story. Murder of Crows began as a whisper of guilt and folklore. Though it draws faint inspiration from the life and legend of Jeremiah Johnson, this tale is entirely imagined—fiction through and through. But like many stories, its roots are tangled in real emotion: grief, memory, regret… and the uncanny way the natural world sometimes stares back.
As for the birds? They haven’t left.
They’re still watching.
Just outside my window.
If you enjoyed this story, buy me an e-book!
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/donmcdonald
or click FOLLOW
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]]>An artist named James Clarence Withencroft spends the morning drawing a man in the dock, caught at the instant sentence is passed on him. Then he walks out into the glare, wanders without direction, and finds himself in a stonemason's yard, where the man from his drawing sits carving a headstone. Neither has ever laid eyes on the other. The name cut into the stone is Withencroft's own, and so is the date.
They agree the safest thing is to sit together until midnight passes.
W.F. Harvey wrote this in 1910, six pages that have refused to loosen their grip in the century since
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]]>An artist named James Clarence Withencroft spends the morning drawing a man in the dock, caught at the instant sentence is passed on him. Then he walks out into the glare, wanders without direction, and finds himself in a stonemason's yard, where the man from his drawing sits carving a headstone. Neither has ever laid eyes on the other. The name cut into the stone is Withencroft's own, and so is the date.
They agree the safest thing is to sit together until midnight passes.
W.F. Harvey wrote this in 1910, six pages that have refused to loosen their grip in the century since
If you enjoyed this story, buy me an e-book!
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]]>Sinclair Lewis was born in 1885 in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, a small town he spent the rest of his life dissecting. He worked his way through Yale, then through the magazine trade, turning out stories for the Saturday Evening Post and others while he learned how to aim. "The Willow Walk" comes from that stretch, 1918, and was picked up that same year for The Best American Short Stories. The novels followed fast, Main Street, Babbitt, Arrowsmith, Elmer Gantry, each one taking a layer off American respectability. In 1930 he became the first American awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He died in Rome in 1951.
If this one held you, there's a shelf of them waiting at shortstoryverses.com. Litreading is where the classics live, Chekhov, Faulkner, Chopin, Mansfield, read the way they were meant to be heard. New Tales Told carries original fiction you won't find anywhere else. FRIGHTLY handles the dark. HumorUs takes on the funny. Love Lit, Season's Readings, and Readastorus round it out, the last one built for kids and always free of commercials. All of it narrated in one studio by one voice, all of it free. Come find your next story at .
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]]>Sinclair Lewis was born in 1885 in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, a small town he spent the rest of his life dissecting. He worked his way through Yale, then through the magazine trade, turning out stories for the Saturday Evening Post and others while he learned how to aim. "The Willow Walk" comes from that stretch, 1918, and was picked up that same year for The Best American Short Stories. The novels followed fast, Main Street, Babbitt, Arrowsmith, Elmer Gantry, each one taking a layer off American respectability. In 1930 he became the first American awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He died in Rome in 1951.
If this one held you, there's a shelf of them waiting at shortstoryverses.com. Litreading is where the classics live, Chekhov, Faulkner, Chopin, Mansfield, read the way they were meant to be heard. New Tales Told carries original fiction you won't find anywhere else. FRIGHTLY handles the dark. HumorUs takes on the funny. Love Lit, Season's Readings, and Readastorus round it out, the last one built for kids and always free of commercials. All of it narrated in one studio by one voice, all of it free. Come find your next story at .
If you enjoyed this story, buy me an e-book!
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/donmcdonald
or click FOLLOW
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]]>Walls stay still. Rooms hold their shape. The spaces we live in behave.
And when they don’t, we look for explanations.
Old houses settle. Pipes shift. Light plays tricks.
But sometimes the world doesn’t explain itself.
When an answer can’t be seen, that doesn’t mean there isn’t one.
There is something.
Something all too real.
Something beyond frightening.
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]]>Walls stay still. Rooms hold their shape. The spaces we live in behave.
And when they don’t, we look for explanations.
Old houses settle. Pipes shift. Light plays tricks.
But sometimes the world doesn’t explain itself.
When an answer can’t be seen, that doesn’t mean there isn’t one.
There is something.
Something all too real.
Something beyond frightening.
If you enjoyed this story, buy me an e-book!
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/donmcdonald
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]]>This is the slow, suffocating terror of a mind turning against itself.
Guy de Maupassant, one of France’s great masters of psychological horror, wrote with an uncanny instinct for the fractures that hide beneath ordinary life. His stories rarely rely on monsters or myth—only on the terrible things people can do, think, or become.
If you enjoyed this tale, explore more shadows and unsettling corners in the Short Storyverses collection at shortstoryverses.com.
If you enjoyed this story, buy me an e-book!
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]]>This is the slow, suffocating terror of a mind turning against itself.
Guy de Maupassant, one of France’s great masters of psychological horror, wrote with an uncanny instinct for the fractures that hide beneath ordinary life. His stories rarely rely on monsters or myth—only on the terrible things people can do, think, or become.
If you enjoyed this tale, explore more shadows and unsettling corners in the Short Storyverses collection at shortstoryverses.com.
If you enjoyed this story, buy me an e-book!
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/donmcdonald
or click FOLLOW
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]]>Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) reshaped American literature with his mastery of psychological terror, unreliable narrators, and the eerie beauty of the macabre. A poet, critic, and storyteller, Poe created the modern detective story, refined the Gothic genre, and left behind some of the most haunting works in English. His writing slips into the darker corners of the mind—never with cheap shocks, always with precision and a pulse you can feel.
If this tale leaves your heartbeat just a little too loud in your ears, wander deeper into Short Storyverses. From ghosts in the walls to mysteries in the shadows, every story unlocks another room you’re not sure you should enter. But you will. And you’ll want to hear what’s waiting inside.
If you enjoyed this story, buy me an e-book!
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]]>Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) reshaped American literature with his mastery of psychological terror, unreliable narrators, and the eerie beauty of the macabre. A poet, critic, and storyteller, Poe created the modern detective story, refined the Gothic genre, and left behind some of the most haunting works in English. His writing slips into the darker corners of the mind—never with cheap shocks, always with precision and a pulse you can feel.
If this tale leaves your heartbeat just a little too loud in your ears, wander deeper into Short Storyverses. From ghosts in the walls to mysteries in the shadows, every story unlocks another room you’re not sure you should enter. But you will. And you’ll want to hear what’s waiting inside.
If you enjoyed this story, buy me an e-book!
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/donmcdonald
or click FOLLOW
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]]>Virginia Woolf remains one of the most influential voices in 20th-century literature, and A Haunted House shows why. In just a few pages she turns a simple domestic space into something tender, uncanny, and alive with memory. It’s a ghost story without the usual theatrics—quiet, rhythmic, almost like the house itself is breathing.
If you enjoy these classic tales, you’ll find hundreds more—along with original stories—across the Short Storyverse at shortstoryverses.com. Mysteries, frights, fantasies, holidays, and timeless literature, all waiting for you whenever you’re ready to listen.
If you enjoyed this story, buy me an e-book!
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]]>Virginia Woolf remains one of the most influential voices in 20th-century literature, and A Haunted House shows why. In just a few pages she turns a simple domestic space into something tender, uncanny, and alive with memory. It’s a ghost story without the usual theatrics—quiet, rhythmic, almost like the house itself is breathing.
If you enjoy these classic tales, you’ll find hundreds more—along with original stories—across the Short Storyverse at shortstoryverses.com. Mysteries, frights, fantasies, holidays, and timeless literature, all waiting for you whenever you’re ready to listen.
If you enjoyed this story, buy me an e-book!
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/donmcdonald
or click FOLLOW
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]]>Prepare for a story that taps on the thin walls of perception and asks whether the most terrifying things are the ones we simply cannot see.
Ambrose Bierce (1842–circa 1914) was an American master of the uncanny—sharp-tongued, mordantly funny, and unafraid to drag readers into the darker corners of the human mind. Known for The Devil’s Dictionary and a lifetime of blistering journalism, Bierce also produced some of the most enduring supernatural tales of the 19th century. The Damned Thing endures because it’s never satisfied with frightening us. It wants to unsettle our certainty about what’s real.
For more journeys into the shadows—classic chills, original nightmares, and the full multiverse of audio storytelling—visit ShortStoryverses.com and discover all the worlds waiting under one roof lit only by a single candle.
If you enjoyed this story, buy me an e-book!
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/donmcdonald
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]]>Prepare for a story that taps on the thin walls of perception and asks whether the most terrifying things are the ones we simply cannot see.
Ambrose Bierce (1842–circa 1914) was an American master of the uncanny—sharp-tongued, mordantly funny, and unafraid to drag readers into the darker corners of the human mind. Known for The Devil’s Dictionary and a lifetime of blistering journalism, Bierce also produced some of the most enduring supernatural tales of the 19th century. The Damned Thing endures because it’s never satisfied with frightening us. It wants to unsettle our certainty about what’s real.
For more journeys into the shadows—classic chills, original nightmares, and the full multiverse of audio storytelling—visit ShortStoryverses.com and discover all the worlds waiting under one roof lit only by a single candle.
If you enjoyed this story, buy me an e-book!
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/donmcdonald
or click FOLLOW
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]]>W. W. Jacobs (1863–1943) was a British writer best known for spinning everyday moments into dark little traps. Though he wrote widely—humor, maritime tales, domestic sketches—it was The Monkey’s Paw that carved his name permanently into the halls of the macabre. The story first appeared in 1902 and has echoed through horror literature ever since, reminding generations that fate has a sharp sense of humor and a very short temper.
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]]>W. W. Jacobs (1863–1943) was a British writer best known for spinning everyday moments into dark little traps. Though he wrote widely—humor, maritime tales, domestic sketches—it was The Monkey’s Paw that carved his name permanently into the halls of the macabre. The story first appeared in 1902 and has echoed through horror literature ever since, reminding generations that fate has a sharp sense of humor and a very short temper.
If you enjoyed this story, buy me an e-book!
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/donmcdonald
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]]>Julius Long (1907–1955) was an American author best known for short, tightly constructed tales of mystery and the macabre. Though he never became a household name, his work appeared in popular pulp magazines of the era, where readers came to admire his talent for slow-building tension and understated chills. The Pale Man remains his most enduring piece—a quiet legend among fans of subtle horror.
Thank you for listening. This story is part of Short Storyverses, a growing multiverse of storytelling—classic tales, original fiction, children’s adventures, holiday stories, and more. Explore every world at ShortStoryverses.com, and discover your next favorite story.
If you enjoyed this story, buy me an e-book!
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]]>Julius Long (1907–1955) was an American author best known for short, tightly constructed tales of mystery and the macabre. Though he never became a household name, his work appeared in popular pulp magazines of the era, where readers came to admire his talent for slow-building tension and understated chills. The Pale Man remains his most enduring piece—a quiet legend among fans of subtle horror.
Thank you for listening. This story is part of Short Storyverses, a growing multiverse of storytelling—classic tales, original fiction, children’s adventures, holiday stories, and more. Explore every world at ShortStoryverses.com, and discover your next favorite story.
If you enjoyed this story, buy me an e-book!
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/donmcdonald
or click FOLLOW
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]]>Bram Stoker (1847–1912) was an Irish writer whose work shaped modern horror. While best known for Dracula, Stoker spent his career constructing atmospheric tales that lingered on fear, superstition, and the unseen forces pressing at the edges of ordinary life. His short fiction often explored the tension between rational men and irrational evil—a conflict that defines The Judge’s House. Stoker’s influence reaches far beyond vampires; he helped establish the psychological and supernatural vocabulary of horror that writers still draw from today.
This story is part of The Short Storyverses, a growing multiverse of storytelling. Explore classic tales on Litreading, original fiction on New Tales Told, playful adventures for young listeners on Readastorus, and warm, timeless holiday stories on Season’s Readings. One place, multiple storyverses, endless stories.
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]]>Bram Stoker (1847–1912) was an Irish writer whose work shaped modern horror. While best known for Dracula, Stoker spent his career constructing atmospheric tales that lingered on fear, superstition, and the unseen forces pressing at the edges of ordinary life. His short fiction often explored the tension between rational men and irrational evil—a conflict that defines The Judge’s House. Stoker’s influence reaches far beyond vampires; he helped establish the psychological and supernatural vocabulary of horror that writers still draw from today.
This story is part of The Short Storyverses, a growing multiverse of storytelling. Explore classic tales on Litreading, original fiction on New Tales Told, playful adventures for young listeners on Readastorus, and warm, timeless holiday stories on Season’s Readings. One place, multiple storyverses, endless stories.
If you enjoyed this story, buy me an e-book!
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]]>Ambrose Bierce (1842–circa 1914) carved out one of the sharpest, most unsettling voices in American literature. A Civil War veteran turned journalist, he carried the battlefield’s brutality into his fiction—distilling it into stories marked by dark wit, psychological unease, and a quiet, relentless tension. His tales often blend the ordinary with the uncanny, questioning the line between reality and nightmare while exposing the fragility of human certainty. Though best known for An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge and The Devil’s Dictionary, Bierce’s body of work remains a cornerstone of classic American horror and mystery: lean, atmospheric, and unflinchingly direct.
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]]>Ambrose Bierce (1842–circa 1914) carved out one of the sharpest, most unsettling voices in American literature. A Civil War veteran turned journalist, he carried the battlefield’s brutality into his fiction—distilling it into stories marked by dark wit, psychological unease, and a quiet, relentless tension. His tales often blend the ordinary with the uncanny, questioning the line between reality and nightmare while exposing the fragility of human certainty. Though best known for An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge and The Devil’s Dictionary, Bierce’s body of work remains a cornerstone of classic American horror and mystery: lean, atmospheric, and unflinchingly direct.
If you enjoyed this story, buy me an e-book!
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/donmcdonald
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]]>If you’d like more shivers, shadows, and classic chills, step through the door to Short Storyverses at ShortStoryverses.com. There you’ll find Readastorus for kids, and Season’s Readings for holiday stories with a touch of magic—and sometimes a touch of darkness.
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]]>If you’d like more shivers, shadows, and classic chills, step through the door to Short Storyverses at ShortStoryverses.com. There you’ll find Readastorus for kids, and Season’s Readings for holiday stories with a touch of magic—and sometimes a touch of darkness.
If you enjoyed this story, buy me an e-book!
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]]>Ambrose Bierce (1842–circa 1914) carved his place in American literature with a soldier’s grit and a cynic’s clarity. A Civil War veteran turned journalist and satirist, he wrote with a precision that could cut glass. His supernatural and psychological tales — brief, brutal, unforgettable — helped define American horror. Bierce vanished in Mexico in 1913, leaving behind stories that still unsettle readers more than a century later.
Explore more realms of storytelling — from eerie classics to kid-friendly adventures and the warm glow of Season’s Readings — at ShortStoryverses.com.
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]]>Ambrose Bierce (1842–circa 1914) carved his place in American literature with a soldier’s grit and a cynic’s clarity. A Civil War veteran turned journalist and satirist, he wrote with a precision that could cut glass. His supernatural and psychological tales — brief, brutal, unforgettable — helped define American horror. Bierce vanished in Mexico in 1913, leaving behind stories that still unsettle readers more than a century later.
Explore more realms of storytelling — from eerie classics to kid-friendly adventures and the warm glow of Season’s Readings — at ShortStoryverses.com.
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https://www.buymeacoffee.com/donmcdonald
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]]>Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) reshaped American literature with his haunting explorations of the human mind. His stories of psychological tension, obsession, and quiet cruelty helped forge the modern mystery and horror genres. In works like The Cask of Amontillado, Poe shows how terror can arise not from the supernatural, but from the precise and calculated darkness people carry within them.
For more timeless classics and new tales inspired by this tradition, visit Short Storyverses, a collection of rich storytelling universes featuring Litreading, Readastorus, and Season's Reading. Discover short fiction that entertains, unsettles, inspires, and transports—all at shortstoryverses.com.
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]]>Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) reshaped American literature with his haunting explorations of the human mind. His stories of psychological tension, obsession, and quiet cruelty helped forge the modern mystery and horror genres. In works like The Cask of Amontillado, Poe shows how terror can arise not from the supernatural, but from the precise and calculated darkness people carry within them.
For more timeless classics and new tales inspired by this tradition, visit Short Storyverses, a collection of rich storytelling universes featuring Litreading, Readastorus, and Season's Reading. Discover short fiction that entertains, unsettles, inspires, and transports—all at shortstoryverses.com.
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]]>If you enjoy great stories visit shortstoryverses.com and please be sure to follow us on your favorite podcast service.
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]]>If you enjoy great stories visit shortstoryverses.com and please be sure to follow us on your favorite podcast service.
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]]>H. P. Lovecraft ranked Algernon Blackwood’s 1907 novella above every other supernatural tale in English.
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]]>H. P. Lovecraft ranked Algernon Blackwood’s 1907 novella above every other supernatural tale in English.
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]]>Two men paddle through the darkest stretch of the Danube.
H. P. Lovecraft ranked Algernon Blackwood’s 1907 novella above every other supernatural tale in English.
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]]>Two men paddle through the darkest stretch of the Danube.
H. P. Lovecraft ranked Algernon Blackwood’s 1907 novella above every other supernatural tale in English.
For more short fiction podcasts, please visit shortstoryverses.com.
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]]>From Short Storyverses, where there’s always another story waiting at shortstoryverses.com.
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]]>From Short Storyverses, where there’s always another story waiting at shortstoryverses.com.
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]]>Hollis Pike's neighbors can't hear it. His phone can't record it. The audiologist says his hearing is fine, better than fine, and writes something down.
So he goes looking for where it comes from. The county keeps records. The house has a history. The sound is patient.
An original story, written and read by Don McDonald.
This podcast is a part of shortstoryverses.com
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]]>Hollis Pike's neighbors can't hear it. His phone can't record it. The audiologist says his hearing is fine, better than fine, and writes something down.
So he goes looking for where it comes from. The county keeps records. The house has a history. The sound is patient.
An original story, written and read by Don McDonald.
This podcast is a part of shortstoryverses.com
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]]>Check out our multiverses of short fiction podcasts at shortstoryverses.com.
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]]>Check out our multiverses of short fiction podcasts at shortstoryverses.com.
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]]>He's rented a colonial mansion for the summer and given her the big room at the top, the old nursery, with barred windows and a bed that won't move. She keeps a journal anyway, tucked out of sight whenever he comes up the stairs. In it she writes about the house, the garden, the baby, her husband's kindness.
Mostly she writes about the wallpaper.
Published in 1892 and still unsettling. Read by Don McDonald
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]]>He's rented a colonial mansion for the summer and given her the big room at the top, the old nursery, with barred windows and a bed that won't move. She keeps a journal anyway, tucked out of sight whenever he comes up the stairs. In it she writes about the house, the garden, the baby, her husband's kindness.
Mostly she writes about the wallpaper.
Published in 1892 and still unsettling. Read by Don McDonald
Please be sure to follow on your podcast service and if you enjoyed the story please leave a five star review or rating.
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A story from the archives recently remastered.
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]]>Now the seatbelt sign is on, the descent has started, and his brother is running out of days. In his jacket pocket is a voicemail he has never played.
There's a rule pilots follow below ten thousand feet. Nothing gets said that doesn't need saying. He always thought that sounded like a good way to live.
An original story, written and read by Don McDonald.
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]]>Now the seatbelt sign is on, the descent has started, and his brother is running out of days. In his jacket pocket is a voicemail he has never played.
There's a rule pilots follow below ten thousand feet. Nothing gets said that doesn't need saying. He always thought that sounded like a good way to live.
An original story, written and read by Don McDonald.
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]]>First published in Harper’s Christmas supplement, December 1882.
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]]>First published in Harper’s Christmas supplement, December 1882.
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]]>If you like short stories, there's a multiverse of them at shortstoryverses.com.
And one favor. Hit follow. It costs you nothing, it takes a second, and it helps keep a show like this going.
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]]>If you like short stories, there's a multiverse of them at shortstoryverses.com.
And one favor. Hit follow. It costs you nothing, it takes a second, and it helps keep a show like this going.
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]]>O. Henry at full gallop, in a nine-minute comedy from The Four Million, read by Don McDonald.
This is a story from the archives recently remastered.
Litreading is part of the Short Storyverses network of fiction podcasts. More stories, more feeds, at shortstoryverses.com.
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]]>O. Henry at full gallop, in a nine-minute comedy from The Four Million, read by Don McDonald.
This is a story from the archives recently remastered.
Litreading is part of the Short Storyverses network of fiction podcasts. More stories, more feeds, at shortstoryverses.com.
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]]>For two years she was her mother’s caregiver. Now she is her mother’s administrator. She makes lists. She keeps folders. She is very good at this.
Then she reaches the bottom of the last statement.
An original story, written and read by Don McDonald.
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]]>For two years she was her mother’s caregiver. Now she is her mother’s administrator. She makes lists. She keeps folders. She is very good at this.
Then she reaches the bottom of the last statement.
An original story, written and read by Don McDonald.
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]]>A mild little man named Cornelius Appin has spent seventeen years on one problem. He believes he's solved it: he has taught a cat to speak. The company around Lady Blemley's tea table does not believe him — and that, as it happens, is the last comfortable moment anyone in the house will enjoy.
Pour yourself some tea. Mind the saucer.
Saki was the pen name of Hector Hugh Munro (1870–1916), the sharpest wit of the Edwardian age. Born in Burma and raised in Devon by a grandmother and two aunts he could not abide, he became a foreign correspondent before turning his pen on polite society. He borrowed his pen name from the cupbearer in the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. When war came in 1914, he enlisted as a private at forty-three and refused a commission; he was killed by a sniper in France on November 14, 1916. His last words were “Put that bloody cigarette out.”
“Tobermory” first appeared in the Westminster Gazette in 1909 and was collected in The Chronicles of Clovis in 1911.
Read by Don McDonald. LitReading is part of the Short Storyverses network. shortstoryverses.com
This is a story from the archives recently remastered.
We are so honored to have been featured by Apple Podcasts as a great source for summer stories. If you don't want to miss our future stories, please Follow or Subscribe. Also, we have over 100 stories in our back catalog. Enough stories to keep you entertained for weeks.
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]]>A mild little man named Cornelius Appin has spent seventeen years on one problem. He believes he's solved it: he has taught a cat to speak. The company around Lady Blemley's tea table does not believe him — and that, as it happens, is the last comfortable moment anyone in the house will enjoy.
Pour yourself some tea. Mind the saucer.
Saki was the pen name of Hector Hugh Munro (1870–1916), the sharpest wit of the Edwardian age. Born in Burma and raised in Devon by a grandmother and two aunts he could not abide, he became a foreign correspondent before turning his pen on polite society. He borrowed his pen name from the cupbearer in the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. When war came in 1914, he enlisted as a private at forty-three and refused a commission; he was killed by a sniper in France on November 14, 1916. His last words were “Put that bloody cigarette out.”
“Tobermory” first appeared in the Westminster Gazette in 1909 and was collected in The Chronicles of Clovis in 1911.
Read by Don McDonald. LitReading is part of the Short Storyverses network. shortstoryverses.com
This is a story from the archives recently remastered.
We are so honored to have been featured by Apple Podcasts as a great source for summer stories. If you don't want to miss our future stories, please Follow or Subscribe. Also, we have over 100 stories in our back catalog. Enough stories to keep you entertained for weeks.
Looking for even more stories? Check out all our narrative podcasts at shortstoryverses.com
If you enjoyed this story, buy me an e-book! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/donmcdonald
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]]>He carries it home and records his diary each night, and the machine hands him back to himself, the nearest thing to company he has. Then the wax starts holding something he never put there.
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]]>He carries it home and records his diary each night, and the machine hands him back to himself, the nearest thing to company he has. Then the wax starts holding something he never put there.
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]]>So the men come out to the farmhouse: the sheriff, the county attorney, and the neighbor who found her. They search the cold rooms for something that will hold up in court. Two of their wives ride along to gather a few things for the woman in the county jail. Nobody expects much from them.
The kitchen is a mess of unfinished chores and small things left where they fell.
Susan Glaspell once covered a murder case like this as a young reporter in Iowa, and it stayed with her. She wrote the story in 1917, and a century later it still hasn't loosened its grip.
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]]>So the men come out to the farmhouse: the sheriff, the county attorney, and the neighbor who found her. They search the cold rooms for something that will hold up in court. Two of their wives ride along to gather a few things for the woman in the county jail. Nobody expects much from them.
The kitchen is a mess of unfinished chores and small things left where they fell.
Susan Glaspell once covered a murder case like this as a young reporter in Iowa, and it stayed with her. She wrote the story in 1917, and a century later it still hasn't loosened its grip.
This is a story from the archives recently remastered.
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]]>The card came to the forge two days later.
The blacksmith was no duelist. He was, however, a man who had spent his life learning where something hard gives.
From Short Storyverses. More at shortstoryverses.com.
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]]>The card came to the forge two days later.
The blacksmith was no duelist. He was, however, a man who had spent his life learning where something hard gives.
From Short Storyverses. More at shortstoryverses.com.
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]]>This is P.G. Wodehouse, 1926, at his most gleefully unreliable.
First published in Liberty, August 7, 1926; collected in Meet Mr. Mulliner, 1927. Read by Don McDonald. HumorUs is part of the Short Storyverses network. shortstoryverses.com
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]]>This is P.G. Wodehouse, 1926, at his most gleefully unreliable.
First published in Liberty, August 7, 1926; collected in Meet Mr. Mulliner, 1927. Read by Don McDonald. HumorUs is part of the Short Storyverses network. shortstoryverses.com
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]]>Roy Kittleson has not seen the man named in it since a Friday in 1986, and he has his reasons, and none of them are good. He drives up anyway. Three hours, most of it flat.
He has rehearsed nothing. He is counting on grief to arrive on its own.
“The Wrong Funeral,” is an original story written and read by Don McDonald from ShortStoryverses.com.
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]]>Roy Kittleson has not seen the man named in it since a Friday in 1986, and he has his reasons, and none of them are good. He drives up anyway. Three hours, most of it flat.
He has rehearsed nothing. He is counting on grief to arrive on its own.
“The Wrong Funeral,” is an original story written and read by Don McDonald from ShortStoryverses.com.
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]]>Nobody has died on a Portland street in four years. The city handed over the wheel eight years ago and got back quiet nights, clean air, and a fatality rate of zero. Ask anyone. The algorithms saved us.
Then, at 7:12 on an ordinary Tuesday, a man waiting for his morning ride is killed against a brick wall at Fifth and Glisan—in front of three witnesses who all describe the same impossible thing. Before lunch, there is a second.
The company’s lawyers called the police seven minutes after the first death. That was six minutes before anyone called them.
Special Agent Maya Restrepo catches the case: deaths that could not have happened, and a maintenance log with a sentence sitting in it where a number should be.
You’re hearing Episode One of Care Protocol as a special LitReading bonus. The story continues on its own separate podcast, and future episodes will not appear in the LitReading feed. Search for and follow Care Protocol wherever you get your podcasts.
In Episode Two of Care Protocol:
Something happens on a stretch of I-5 outside Wilsonville, caught from nine angles. By Friday morning, there isn’t a screen in the country that hasn’t run it. By Saturday, the country has decided what it means—and Maya Restrepo is the only person still asking the other question.
Episode Two arrives Wednesday, September 16, exclusively in the Care Protocol podcast feed.
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]]>Nobody has died on a Portland street in four years. The city handed over the wheel eight years ago and got back quiet nights, clean air, and a fatality rate of zero. Ask anyone. The algorithms saved us.
Then, at 7:12 on an ordinary Tuesday, a man waiting for his morning ride is killed against a brick wall at Fifth and Glisan—in front of three witnesses who all describe the same impossible thing. Before lunch, there is a second.
The company’s lawyers called the police seven minutes after the first death. That was six minutes before anyone called them.
Special Agent Maya Restrepo catches the case: deaths that could not have happened, and a maintenance log with a sentence sitting in it where a number should be.
You’re hearing Episode One of Care Protocol as a special LitReading bonus. The story continues on its own separate podcast, and future episodes will not appear in the LitReading feed. Search for and follow Care Protocol wherever you get your podcasts.
In Episode Two of Care Protocol:
Something happens on a stretch of I-5 outside Wilsonville, caught from nine angles. By Friday morning, there isn’t a screen in the country that hasn’t run it. By Saturday, the country has decided what it means—and Maya Restrepo is the only person still asking the other question.
Episode Two arrives Wednesday, September 16, exclusively in the Care Protocol podcast feed.
Explore our multiverse of narrated short stories at ShortStoryVerses.com.
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]]>Nobody touches anybody. Children learn it early, with the short rod, because correcting is cheapest when they're small.
Sela is twenty-two and has never had a low year. When the tremor takes the hands of the old man who grades pears beside her, she stands up and says, "I'll take that." Nothing forbids it. There is even a provision.
Two hundred and nine times. Over twenty months.
Somebody is keeping the number.
“The Garden’s Wall” started with a question I couldn’t put down. What would a society look like if it decided, sincerely and on the evidence, that compassion was a defect to be bred out? Not a cruel place. A reasonable one, where the punishment is measured, the reasoning is sound, and nobody enjoys any part of it.
The answer turned out to be a garden, and a wall nobody built, and a gate that opens outward, and forty-one people put through it in a single lifetime.
Please check out my many universes of short stories at shortstoryverses.com and my long-running money podcast, Talking Real Money.
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]]>Nobody touches anybody. Children learn it early, with the short rod, because correcting is cheapest when they're small.
Sela is twenty-two and has never had a low year. When the tremor takes the hands of the old man who grades pears beside her, she stands up and says, "I'll take that." Nothing forbids it. There is even a provision.
Two hundred and nine times. Over twenty months.
Somebody is keeping the number.
“The Garden’s Wall” started with a question I couldn’t put down. What would a society look like if it decided, sincerely and on the evidence, that compassion was a defect to be bred out? Not a cruel place. A reasonable one, where the punishment is measured, the reasoning is sound, and nobody enjoys any part of it.
The answer turned out to be a garden, and a wall nobody built, and a gate that opens outward, and forty-one people put through it in a single lifetime.
Please check out my many universes of short stories at shortstoryverses.com and my long-running money podcast, Talking Real Money.
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]]>A December afternoon, a fire going down, and a marriage stalled halfway through a quarrel nobody bothered to finish. Egbert comes in for tea prepared to be reasonable, then conciliatory, then almost penitent. Lady Anne, rigid in the armchair by the tea table, declines to participate. Somewhere above them a bullfinch works through the only tune it knows, and on the rug a Persian cat named Don Tarquinio waits with the patience of an animal who has already decided something.
Saki at his most precise: eleven minutes of drawing-room comedy built entirely out of one person not speaking, and a closing line that reorganizes everything you just heard.
"The Reticence of Lady Anne" was collected in Reginald in Russia and Other Sketches (1910). Read by Don McDonald.
Litreading is part of Short Storyverses. shortstoryverses.com
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]]>A December afternoon, a fire going down, and a marriage stalled halfway through a quarrel nobody bothered to finish. Egbert comes in for tea prepared to be reasonable, then conciliatory, then almost penitent. Lady Anne, rigid in the armchair by the tea table, declines to participate. Somewhere above them a bullfinch works through the only tune it knows, and on the rug a Persian cat named Don Tarquinio waits with the patience of an animal who has already decided something.
Saki at his most precise: eleven minutes of drawing-room comedy built entirely out of one person not speaking, and a closing line that reorganizes everything you just heard.
"The Reticence of Lady Anne" was collected in Reginald in Russia and Other Sketches (1910). Read by Don McDonald.
Litreading is part of Short Storyverses. shortstoryverses.com
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]]>Bret Harte's classic American story unfolds where the Sierra Nevada meets the law of unexpected consequences. In the company of strangers, with old judgments left behind in the valley below, the outcasts of Poker Flat discover that the line between sinner and saint is rarely where the town's respectable citizens believe it to be. A timeless tale about the hands we are dealt, the hands we play, and the surprising hands we never see coming.
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]]>Bret Harte's classic American story unfolds where the Sierra Nevada meets the law of unexpected consequences. In the company of strangers, with old judgments left behind in the valley below, the outcasts of Poker Flat discover that the line between sinner and saint is rarely where the town's respectable citizens believe it to be. A timeless tale about the hands we are dealt, the hands we play, and the surprising hands we never see coming.
If you enjoyed this story, buy me an e-book!
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]]>After dozens of episodes, I thought I'd take one to explain myself. Who I am, why LitReading exists, how a story earns a place here, and why there are suddenly so many related shows sharing the same shelf. Also a few honest words about advertising, a tip jar I'd rather call Buy Me a Book, a request for a review, and a listener who found my narration unlistenable.
Don's Money podcast is Talking Real Money
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]]>After dozens of episodes, I thought I'd take one to explain myself. Who I am, why LitReading exists, how a story earns a place here, and why there are suddenly so many related shows sharing the same shelf. Also a few honest words about advertising, a tip jar I'd rather call Buy Me a Book, a request for a review, and a listener who found my narration unlistenable.
Don's Money podcast is Talking Real Money
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]]>The court has other ideas. Richard Harding Davis, the most famous reporter of his generation, sets the Wisest Man in Wall Street down on a hard oak chair and leaves him there, unrecognized and unimportant, admitted only because he's "with Mr. Andrews," while the whole sorry parade of the city files past the bench.
This is a comedy of manners with a soft heart.
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]]>The court has other ideas. Richard Harding Davis, the most famous reporter of his generation, sets the Wisest Man in Wall Street down on a hard oak chair and leaves him there, unrecognized and unimportant, admitted only because he's "with Mr. Andrews," while the whole sorry parade of the city files past the bench.
This is a comedy of manners with a soft heart.
If you enjoy well-narrated short stories, check out our many story-telling podcasts at shortstoryverses.com
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]]>They sit down between two fir trees, and in the ten minutes that follow, Anton Chekhov does something very quiet and very cruel. He was twenty-five, writing fast and for money under a pen name, and he claimed later that he wrote this one in a bathhouse in a single sitting
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]]>They sit down between two fir trees, and in the ten minutes that follow, Anton Chekhov does something very quiet and very cruel. He was twenty-five, writing fast and for money under a pen name, and he claimed later that he wrote this one in a bathhouse in a single sitting
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]]>In Maple Glen, nothing ever happens. This week, nothing happens in three separate backyards, after dark, and everyone involved would prefer you didn't ask.
A deadpan comedy about honesty, neighbors, and one very patient dog.
Find more stories at ShortStoryverses.com — a multiverse of audio fiction spanning seven shows: classics on LitReading, original voices on New Tales Told, children's stories on Readastorus, holiday tales on Season's Readings, horror on FRIGHTLY!, romance on Love Lit, and comedy on HumorUs. Every story sized to fit a commute, a walk, or the quiet stretch before sleep. We have stories buried everywhere.
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]]>In Maple Glen, nothing ever happens. This week, nothing happens in three separate backyards, after dark, and everyone involved would prefer you didn't ask.
A deadpan comedy about honesty, neighbors, and one very patient dog.
Find more stories at ShortStoryverses.com — a multiverse of audio fiction spanning seven shows: classics on LitReading, original voices on New Tales Told, children's stories on Readastorus, holiday tales on Season's Readings, horror on FRIGHTLY!, romance on Love Lit, and comedy on HumorUs. Every story sized to fit a commute, a walk, or the quiet stretch before sleep. We have stories buried everywhere.
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]]>Short Storyverses is our multiverse of audio fiction — where each show spins in its own orbit but shares one sky. Classics and originals on LitReading, suspense on FRIGHTLY!, romance on Love Lit, comedy on HumorUs, new voices on New Tales Told, and tales for the youngest listeners too. Short enough for a commute, a walk, or the quiet before sleep. Press play at shortstoryverses.com.
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]]>Short Storyverses is our multiverse of audio fiction — where each show spins in its own orbit but shares one sky. Classics and originals on LitReading, suspense on FRIGHTLY!, romance on Love Lit, comedy on HumorUs, new voices on New Tales Told, and tales for the youngest listeners too. Short enough for a commute, a walk, or the quiet before sleep. Press play at shortstoryverses.com.
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]]>Henry Cuyler Bunner (1855–1896) was a poet, novelist, and the longtime editor of the humor magazine *Puck*, celebrated for polished short stories that find real feeling inside social comedy. "The Nice People" is one of his warmest — a story about gossip, appearances, and the whole hidden other side of people that we never see from the heights of our own self-esteem.
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]]>Henry Cuyler Bunner (1855–1896) was a poet, novelist, and the longtime editor of the humor magazine *Puck*, celebrated for polished short stories that find real feeling inside social comedy. "The Nice People" is one of his warmest — a story about gossip, appearances, and the whole hidden other side of people that we never see from the heights of our own self-esteem.
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]]>About the author: Alice Brown (1857–1948) was born on a farm in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, and became one of New England's most admired writers of her era. After moving to Boston in 1884, she produced nearly a book a year for five decades — novels, plays, poetry, and the "local color" stories of New England village life that made her reputation, including the collections Meadow-Grass (1896) and The Country Road (1906). "The Wizard's Touch" was published in 1906, at the height of her career.
Enjoyed today's story? Follow or subscribe wherever you listen so you never miss an episode, and if you have a moment, a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify helps other listeners discover the show. Explore our complete catalog of classic short stories and original tales at shortstoryverses.com. LitReading is written, produced, and narrated by Don McDonald. "The Wizard's Touch" by Alice Brown is in the public domain.
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]]>About the author: Alice Brown (1857–1948) was born on a farm in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, and became one of New England's most admired writers of her era. After moving to Boston in 1884, she produced nearly a book a year for five decades — novels, plays, poetry, and the "local color" stories of New England village life that made her reputation, including the collections Meadow-Grass (1896) and The Country Road (1906). "The Wizard's Touch" was published in 1906, at the height of her career.
Enjoyed today's story? Follow or subscribe wherever you listen so you never miss an episode, and if you have a moment, a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify helps other listeners discover the show. Explore our complete catalog of classic short stories and original tales at shortstoryverses.com. LitReading is written, produced, and narrated by Don McDonald. "The Wizard's Touch" by Alice Brown is in the public domain.
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]]>A sweltering summer afternoon on the Louisiana coast, a storm racing in off the Gulf, and a woman alone in her house when an old flame rides up the path for shelter. Kate Chopin wrote "The Storm" in 1898 and then did something telling with it, she put it in a drawer, because she knew no editor of her day would print a story that rendered a woman's desire so frankly and then refused to punish anyone for it. It stayed unseen until 1969, more than sixty years after her death. Today it stands as one of the boldest short stories in American literature, a small, perfect thing about passion, nature, and the space between what we owe and what we want.
Kate Chopin (1850–1904) was born in St. Louis and married into Louisiana Creole society, and after her husband's death she turned to writing, drawing on the Cajun and Creole world she had lived among. Her 1899 novel, "The Awakening," was so unflinching about a woman's inner and sexual life that the backlash all but ended her career in her lifetime. Vindication came slowly and completely, and she is now regarded as a foundational voice in American fiction and an early, fearless chronicler of women's desire and independence.
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]]>A sweltering summer afternoon on the Louisiana coast, a storm racing in off the Gulf, and a woman alone in her house when an old flame rides up the path for shelter. Kate Chopin wrote "The Storm" in 1898 and then did something telling with it, she put it in a drawer, because she knew no editor of her day would print a story that rendered a woman's desire so frankly and then refused to punish anyone for it. It stayed unseen until 1969, more than sixty years after her death. Today it stands as one of the boldest short stories in American literature, a small, perfect thing about passion, nature, and the space between what we owe and what we want.
Kate Chopin (1850–1904) was born in St. Louis and married into Louisiana Creole society, and after her husband's death she turned to writing, drawing on the Cajun and Creole world she had lived among. Her 1899 novel, "The Awakening," was so unflinching about a woman's inner and sexual life that the backlash all but ended her career in her lifetime. Vindication came slowly and completely, and she is now regarded as a foundational voice in American fiction and an early, fearless chronicler of women's desire and independence.
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]]>“The Garden Party” was written by Katherine Mansfield and first published in 1922. If this reading stayed with you, please share Litreading with a fellow lover of fine stories and leave a five-star rating or review, it’s the simplest way to help the work reach new listeners. Discover our multiverse of short stories at shortstoryverses.com. Thanks for listening.
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]]>“The Garden Party” was written by Katherine Mansfield and first published in 1922. If this reading stayed with you, please share Litreading with a fellow lover of fine stories and leave a five-star rating or review, it’s the simplest way to help the work reach new listeners. Discover our multiverse of short stories at shortstoryverses.com. Thanks for listening.
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]]>A sailor given up for drowned walks back through his own shop door, three years gone, with a fresh scar and a long story about shipwreck, islands, and rescue. His wife weeps with joy. His mother-in-law only sniffs. And across town an old fortune-teller waits with a little china bowl and a great deal to say about where the man has really been. "The Castaway" is W.W. Jacobs at his lightest, a small seaside comedy of belief, suspicion, and a homecoming that goes nowhere near the way anyone planned. The truth here is a slippery thing, and the teller may not be the one you expect.
W.W. Jacobs (1863 to 1943) was an English writer best known today for the horror classic "The Monkey's Paw," though in his own time he was celebrated mostly for comic stories, many of them set among sailors, dock workers, and the small coastal towns they came home to. "The Castaway" shows that lighter, sharper side, the wit that made him a popular favorite long before a single cursed wish made him famous.
Litreading is part of Short Storyverses, a network of fiction podcasts gathering the strange, the funny, and the quietly unsettling, all of it read aloud. Find every show and every story at shortstoryverses.com.
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]]>A sailor given up for drowned walks back through his own shop door, three years gone, with a fresh scar and a long story about shipwreck, islands, and rescue. His wife weeps with joy. His mother-in-law only sniffs. And across town an old fortune-teller waits with a little china bowl and a great deal to say about where the man has really been. "The Castaway" is W.W. Jacobs at his lightest, a small seaside comedy of belief, suspicion, and a homecoming that goes nowhere near the way anyone planned. The truth here is a slippery thing, and the teller may not be the one you expect.
W.W. Jacobs (1863 to 1943) was an English writer best known today for the horror classic "The Monkey's Paw," though in his own time he was celebrated mostly for comic stories, many of them set among sailors, dock workers, and the small coastal towns they came home to. "The Castaway" shows that lighter, sharper side, the wit that made him a popular favorite long before a single cursed wish made him famous.
Litreading is part of Short Storyverses, a network of fiction podcasts gathering the strange, the funny, and the quietly unsettling, all of it read aloud. Find every show and every story at shortstoryverses.com.
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]]>A May storm rolls over a Russian village, and a small beggar-girl runs through it looking for Terenty the cobbler. Her brother has jammed his hand in a hollow tree, reaching after a cuckoo's egg. What begins as a rescue becomes a long, wandering walk through fields washed clean by rain, a barefoot old man naming every living thing for a boy who cannot hear enough of it.
There's no real plot here, and that's the point. Chekhov gives us weather, wonder, and the quiet ache of a child who has no home to walk back to. The last image, offered to no one but the moon, may stay with you longer than the storm.
Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) was a Russian short-story writer and playwright, and a working doctor besides. He wrote hundreds of stories that changed what the form could do, trading tidy plots and clear morals for mood, restraint, and the quiet weight of ordinary life. "Medicine is my lawful wife," he once said, "and literature is my mistress." He died of tuberculosis at forty-four, having reshaped both the short story and the modern stage.
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]]>A May storm rolls over a Russian village, and a small beggar-girl runs through it looking for Terenty the cobbler. Her brother has jammed his hand in a hollow tree, reaching after a cuckoo's egg. What begins as a rescue becomes a long, wandering walk through fields washed clean by rain, a barefoot old man naming every living thing for a boy who cannot hear enough of it.
There's no real plot here, and that's the point. Chekhov gives us weather, wonder, and the quiet ache of a child who has no home to walk back to. The last image, offered to no one but the moon, may stay with you longer than the storm.
Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) was a Russian short-story writer and playwright, and a working doctor besides. He wrote hundreds of stories that changed what the form could do, trading tidy plots and clear morals for mood, restraint, and the quiet weight of ordinary life. "Medicine is my lawful wife," he once said, "and literature is my mistress." He died of tuberculosis at forty-four, having reshaped both the short story and the modern stage.
If you enjoyed this story, check out all of our short story podcasts on the Short Storyvesrse channel on Apple Podcasts or at shortstoryverses.com
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]]>Faulkner published it in 1930 and it just entered the public domain. This is a story that loses none of its grip on the second telling, or the tenth.
And you may have caught it: there's no rose anywhere in the story. Faulkner said the title was a salute, a flower handed to a woman whose tragedy could never be undone. The town watched her for fifty years and gave her nothing. The rose is Faulkner's, laid down after she's gone, the way roses usually are.
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]]>Faulkner published it in 1930 and it just entered the public domain. This is a story that loses none of its grip on the second telling, or the tenth.
And you may have caught it: there's no rose anywhere in the story. Faulkner said the title was a salute, a flower handed to a woman whose tragedy could never be undone. The town watched her for fifty years and gave her nothing. The rose is Faulkner's, laid down after she's gone, the way roses usually are.
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]]>This one began with something I read and couldn't shake. The universe is expanding, and it won't stop, and the stars are spending the only fuel there is. The brightest burn out first. The small, dim, patient ones hold on the longest, for trillions of years, until at last the final star flickers out and the dark that follows has no end and no dawn.
I found I couldn't stop thinking about that last light, and about who might be there to watch it die. Less the physics of the thing than the ache underneath it, one witness at the end of everything, keeping a watch that has finally run out of anything to keep.
That became Dark.
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]]>This one began with something I read and couldn't shake. The universe is expanding, and it won't stop, and the stars are spending the only fuel there is. The brightest burn out first. The small, dim, patient ones hold on the longest, for trillions of years, until at last the final star flickers out and the dark that follows has no end and no dawn.
I found I couldn't stop thinking about that last light, and about who might be there to watch it die. Less the physics of the thing than the ache underneath it, one witness at the end of everything, keeping a watch that has finally run out of anything to keep.
That became Dark.
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]]>Katherine Mansfield was born in Wellington, New Zealand, in 1888, and spent most of her short adult life in England and on the Continent, restless, often ill, and always writing. She is remembered now as one of the great modernists of the short story, a writer who could fit an entire life inside a few pages and turn it slowly in the light. Virginia Woolf, not a generous judge of her contemporaries, once confessed that Mansfield's was the only writing she had ever been jealous of. Mansfield died in France in 1923, of tuberculosis, just thirty-four years old, with most of her finest work behind her and, you can't help feeling, a great deal more still ahead.
Litreading is part of Short Storyverses (shortstoryverses.com), a multiverse of audio fiction devoted to exceptional storytelling, classics and originals alike. Explore Readastorus for timeless tales for the youngest listeners, Season's Readings to brighten your holidays any time of year, Love Lit for the romantics and the hopelessly devoted, and FRIGHTLY! for tales that keep the lights low and the floorboards creaking. Search for all of them wherever you get your podcasts.
If you enjoy historical fiction, be sure to check out Don's first novel, The Line Uncrossed available at Amazon.com.
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]]>Katherine Mansfield was born in Wellington, New Zealand, in 1888, and spent most of her short adult life in England and on the Continent, restless, often ill, and always writing. She is remembered now as one of the great modernists of the short story, a writer who could fit an entire life inside a few pages and turn it slowly in the light. Virginia Woolf, not a generous judge of her contemporaries, once confessed that Mansfield's was the only writing she had ever been jealous of. Mansfield died in France in 1923, of tuberculosis, just thirty-four years old, with most of her finest work behind her and, you can't help feeling, a great deal more still ahead.
Litreading is part of Short Storyverses (shortstoryverses.com), a multiverse of audio fiction devoted to exceptional storytelling, classics and originals alike. Explore Readastorus for timeless tales for the youngest listeners, Season's Readings to brighten your holidays any time of year, Love Lit for the romantics and the hopelessly devoted, and FRIGHTLY! for tales that keep the lights low and the floorboards creaking. Search for all of them wherever you get your podcasts.
If you enjoy historical fiction, be sure to check out Don's first novel, The Line Uncrossed available at Amazon.com.
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]]>"Man or Monster" follows him through a single day. The morning report. The short rations. The chain. The deadline. The letters to a Richmond that never wrote back. No verdict, no villain's speech, just one man doing his duty inside a horror he could name but could not stop, and the question the title leaves with you.
From the world of Don McDonald's novel The Line Uncrossed. The book is available at Amazon.com, BN.com, and others booksellers or you can get a special ebook bundle that includes this and two other Civil War stories at donmcdonald.com
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]]>"Man or Monster" follows him through a single day. The morning report. The short rations. The chain. The deadline. The letters to a Richmond that never wrote back. No verdict, no villain's speech, just one man doing his duty inside a horror he could name but could not stop, and the question the title leaves with you.
From the world of Don McDonald's novel The Line Uncrossed. The book is available at Amazon.com, BN.com, and others booksellers or you can get a special ebook bundle that includes this and two other Civil War stories at donmcdonald.com
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]]>A warning before you press play. "Chickamauga" is brief and graphic. Bierce describes wounded and dying men in unflinching detail, and there is a small child at the center of the story. If you've served, if you've lost someone to war, or if you're listening with children present, take a moment before you begin.
This is not the Civil War of monuments and ceremony. It is the war as Bierce saw it, written by a man who refused to let his country forget.
A note on the language: Bierce wrote for readers of 1889, and his vocabulary, sentence length, and classical allusions reflect that. He expected his audience to do some work. The difficulty is part of the experience.
The battle in the title was a real battle. More than 34,000 men were killed, wounded, or captured over three days in north Georgia. One of them, captured on September 20th, 1863, was John B. Anderson of the 6th Indiana Volunteer Infantry — my great-great-grandfather. He survived Libby Prison, Danville, and Andersonville, and walked home on the last day of 1864.
His story inspired The Line Uncrossed, a novel following a young soldier named Levi Anderson from enlistment through capture, captivity, and homecoming. It's available May 22nd, 2026, wherever books are sold.
You can also immediately purchase a special ebook package with The Line Uncrossed and a three story bonus ebook with this story and two original stories from the world of The Line Uncrossed for only $5 at donmcdonald.com
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]]>A warning before you press play. "Chickamauga" is brief and graphic. Bierce describes wounded and dying men in unflinching detail, and there is a small child at the center of the story. If you've served, if you've lost someone to war, or if you're listening with children present, take a moment before you begin.
This is not the Civil War of monuments and ceremony. It is the war as Bierce saw it, written by a man who refused to let his country forget.
A note on the language: Bierce wrote for readers of 1889, and his vocabulary, sentence length, and classical allusions reflect that. He expected his audience to do some work. The difficulty is part of the experience.
The battle in the title was a real battle. More than 34,000 men were killed, wounded, or captured over three days in north Georgia. One of them, captured on September 20th, 1863, was John B. Anderson of the 6th Indiana Volunteer Infantry — my great-great-grandfather. He survived Libby Prison, Danville, and Andersonville, and walked home on the last day of 1864.
His story inspired The Line Uncrossed, a novel following a young soldier named Levi Anderson from enlistment through capture, captivity, and homecoming. It's available May 22nd, 2026, wherever books are sold.
You can also immediately purchase a special ebook package with The Line Uncrossed and a three story bonus ebook with this story and two original stories from the world of The Line Uncrossed for only $5 at donmcdonald.com
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]]>In 1861 Indianapolis, while the country rushes headlong toward war, Henry would prefer to remain where he is: alive, sarcastic, and safely distant from glory. But a simple errand on behalf of a worried mother places him at a recruiting table outside the statehouse, where one ordinary moment begins quietly rearranging the rest of his life.
The Pen is an original short story set in the world of The Line Uncrossed, a literary Civil War novel about family, memory, survival, and the irreversible weight of seemingly small decisions. Told with wit, warmth, and the hindsight of years, it offers a deeply human glimpse into the young men who marched toward war before they understood what war truly was.
The Line Uncrossed, available May 22, 2026 at Amazon.com, BN.com, and a host of other book and e-book services.
Podcast listeners can get an early access to The Line Uncrossed e-book offer with bonus stories, including this one, at donmcdonald.com
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]]>In 1861 Indianapolis, while the country rushes headlong toward war, Henry would prefer to remain where he is: alive, sarcastic, and safely distant from glory. But a simple errand on behalf of a worried mother places him at a recruiting table outside the statehouse, where one ordinary moment begins quietly rearranging the rest of his life.
The Pen is an original short story set in the world of The Line Uncrossed, a literary Civil War novel about family, memory, survival, and the irreversible weight of seemingly small decisions. Told with wit, warmth, and the hindsight of years, it offers a deeply human glimpse into the young men who marched toward war before they understood what war truly was.
The Line Uncrossed, available May 22, 2026 at Amazon.com, BN.com, and a host of other book and e-book services.
Podcast listeners can get an early access to The Line Uncrossed e-book offer with bonus stories, including this one, at donmcdonald.com
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]]>The Five Boons of Life was published in 1902, when Mark Twain was sixty-six years old, and it belongs to a period of his work that bears little resemblance to the river-bright comedy of Tom Sawyer or the rolling satire of Huckleberry Finn. By the time he wrote this fable, the man born Samuel Clemens had buried his beloved daughter Susy, who died of meningitis in 1896 while he was abroad, unable to reach her. His wife Olivia, the center of his emotional life for more than three decades, was in failing health and would die two years after this story was written. His youngest daughter Jean, who suffered from epilepsy, would drown in a bathtub on Christmas Eve of 1909, four months before Twain himself died. He outlived nearly everyone he had built his life around.
He had also outlived his own fortune. A series of disastrous investments, most notoriously in the Paige typesetting machine, had bankrupted him in the 1890s and forced him to undertake a global lecture tour, in his sixties, to pay back creditors he was not legally obligated to repay. He did it anyway, because his name was on the debt, and his name had once meant something to him.
By 1902, fame had become, in his own assessment, a kind of haunting. Pleasure had thinned. Love had cost him more than he believed any human heart should be asked to pay. And wealth, he had learned twice over, was a borrowed thing that the world reclaimed without warning. What remained was the suspicion, hardened by experience into something like conviction, that the only mercy available to a human being was the one nobody wanted to ask for, and that even that mercy was distributed without justice.
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]]>The Five Boons of Life was published in 1902, when Mark Twain was sixty-six years old, and it belongs to a period of his work that bears little resemblance to the river-bright comedy of Tom Sawyer or the rolling satire of Huckleberry Finn. By the time he wrote this fable, the man born Samuel Clemens had buried his beloved daughter Susy, who died of meningitis in 1896 while he was abroad, unable to reach her. His wife Olivia, the center of his emotional life for more than three decades, was in failing health and would die two years after this story was written. His youngest daughter Jean, who suffered from epilepsy, would drown in a bathtub on Christmas Eve of 1909, four months before Twain himself died. He outlived nearly everyone he had built his life around.
He had also outlived his own fortune. A series of disastrous investments, most notoriously in the Paige typesetting machine, had bankrupted him in the 1890s and forced him to undertake a global lecture tour, in his sixties, to pay back creditors he was not legally obligated to repay. He did it anyway, because his name was on the debt, and his name had once meant something to him.
By 1902, fame had become, in his own assessment, a kind of haunting. Pleasure had thinned. Love had cost him more than he believed any human heart should be asked to pay. And wealth, he had learned twice over, was a borrowed thing that the world reclaimed without warning. What remained was the suspicion, hardened by experience into something like conviction, that the only mercy available to a human being was the one nobody wanted to ask for, and that even that mercy was distributed without justice.
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]]>The Crevice is a work of fiction built on the bones of that event. The names are invented. The mountain is invented. The man wedged into the rock is invented. But the cost was real. The promise that brought the helicopters in was real. And the men who flew through the dark to keep that promise, the special operators and aircrews who do this work in places most of us will never know about, for people whose names they will never learn, they are real, and they are the reason the story ends the way it does.
This story is being presented on Litreading for limited time to help build the audience for its eventual primary home, New Tales Told part of Short Storyverses. New Tales Told is made up of totally original modern stories written with the feel of classic short stories (suitable for all ages). There are now fourteen original stories so please check start listening and subscribing to New Tales Told. On Apple Podcasts it is part of the Short Storyverses Channel.
We are expanding our universe of short story podcasts on our new podcast channel, Short StoryVerses. Listen to some of Don's new, original short stories on the "New Tales Told" podcast. Look it up on your favorite podcast player.
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]]>The Crevice is a work of fiction built on the bones of that event. The names are invented. The mountain is invented. The man wedged into the rock is invented. But the cost was real. The promise that brought the helicopters in was real. And the men who flew through the dark to keep that promise, the special operators and aircrews who do this work in places most of us will never know about, for people whose names they will never learn, they are real, and they are the reason the story ends the way it does.
This story is being presented on Litreading for limited time to help build the audience for its eventual primary home, New Tales Told part of Short Storyverses. New Tales Told is made up of totally original modern stories written with the feel of classic short stories (suitable for all ages). There are now fourteen original stories so please check start listening and subscribing to New Tales Told. On Apple Podcasts it is part of the Short Storyverses Channel.
We are expanding our universe of short story podcasts on our new podcast channel, Short StoryVerses. Listen to some of Don's new, original short stories on the "New Tales Told" podcast. Look it up on your favorite podcast player.
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]]>Saki was the pen name of Hector Hugh Munro, born in Burma in 1870 and raised in England by two strict aunts whose tyrannies would later populate his fiction. He worked as a journalist and foreign correspondent before turning to the short story, where his wit, elegance, and appetite for mischief found their natural home. He enlisted at the outbreak of the First World War and was killed by a sniper in France in 1916.
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]]>Saki was the pen name of Hector Hugh Munro, born in Burma in 1870 and raised in England by two strict aunts whose tyrannies would later populate his fiction. He worked as a journalist and foreign correspondent before turning to the short story, where his wit, elegance, and appetite for mischief found their natural home. He enlisted at the outbreak of the First World War and was killed by a sniper in France in 1916.
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]]>This story is being presented on Litreading for limited time to help build the audience for its eventual primary home, New Tales Told part of Short Storyverses. New Tales Told is made up of totally original modern stories written with the feel of classic short stories (suitable for all ages). There are now fourteen original stories so please check start listening and subscribing to New Tales Told. On Apple Podcasts it is part of the Short Storyverses Channel.
We are expanding our universe of short story podcasts on our new podcast channel, Short StoryVerses. Listen to some of Don's new, original short stories on the "New Tales Told" podcast. Look it up on your favorite podcast player.
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]]>This story is being presented on Litreading for limited time to help build the audience for its eventual primary home, New Tales Told part of Short Storyverses. New Tales Told is made up of totally original modern stories written with the feel of classic short stories (suitable for all ages). There are now fourteen original stories so please check start listening and subscribing to New Tales Told. On Apple Podcasts it is part of the Short Storyverses Channel.
We are expanding our universe of short story podcasts on our new podcast channel, Short StoryVerses. Listen to some of Don's new, original short stories on the "New Tales Told" podcast. Look it up on your favorite podcast player.
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]]>Oscar Wilde wrote "The Sphinx Without a Secret" in 1887, when he was thirty-three and already the most quotable man in England. He's remembered for the big things, "The Picture of Dorian Gray," "The Importance of Being Earnest," the trials that destroyed him. But pieces like this one remind you that he could do more with a photograph and a cup of coffee than most writers can do with a hundred pages.
f you enjoyed this story, there's a lot more where it came from. At ShortStoryverses.com you'll find all of our podcasts: New Tales Told for original fiction, Season's Readings for holiday stories, Readastorus for the whole family, and FRIGHTLY for when you want to lose a little sleep. And if you've got a second, tap that five-star rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
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]]>Oscar Wilde wrote "The Sphinx Without a Secret" in 1887, when he was thirty-three and already the most quotable man in England. He's remembered for the big things, "The Picture of Dorian Gray," "The Importance of Being Earnest," the trials that destroyed him. But pieces like this one remind you that he could do more with a photograph and a cup of coffee than most writers can do with a hundred pages.
f you enjoyed this story, there's a lot more where it came from. At ShortStoryverses.com you'll find all of our podcasts: New Tales Told for original fiction, Season's Readings for holiday stories, Readastorus for the whole family, and FRIGHTLY for when you want to lose a little sleep. And if you've got a second, tap that five-star rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
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]]>Problems are addressed. Responsibilities are shared. And when questions arise, there is a structure in place to handle them.
Over time, that structure has grown more refined, more comprehensive… and more complete.
This story is being presented on Litreading for limited time to help build the audience for its eventual primary home, New Tales Told part of Short Storyverses. New Tales Told is made up of totally original modern stories written with the feel of classic short stories (suitable for all ages). There are now fourteen original stories so please check start listening and subscribing to New Tales Told. On Apple Podcasts it is part of the Short Storyverses Channel.
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]]>Problems are addressed. Responsibilities are shared. And when questions arise, there is a structure in place to handle them.
Over time, that structure has grown more refined, more comprehensive… and more complete.
This story is being presented on Litreading for limited time to help build the audience for its eventual primary home, New Tales Told part of Short Storyverses. New Tales Told is made up of totally original modern stories written with the feel of classic short stories (suitable for all ages). There are now fourteen original stories so please check start listening and subscribing to New Tales Told. On Apple Podcasts it is part of the Short Storyverses Channel.
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]]>Walls stay still. Rooms hold their shape. The spaces we live in behave.
And when they don’t, we look for explanations.
Old houses settle. Pipes shift. Light plays tricks.
But sometimes the world doesn’t explain itself.
When an answer can’t be seen, that doesn’t mean there isn’t one.
There is something.
Something all too real.
Something beyond frightening.
This story is being presented on Litreading for limited time to help build the audience for its eventual primary home, New Tales Told part of Short Storyverses. New Tales Told is made up of totally original modern stories written with the feel of classic short stories (suitable for all ages). There are now fourteen original stories so please check start listening and subscribing to New Tales Told. On Apple Podcasts it is part of the Short Storyverses Channel.
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]]>Walls stay still. Rooms hold their shape. The spaces we live in behave.
And when they don’t, we look for explanations.
Old houses settle. Pipes shift. Light plays tricks.
But sometimes the world doesn’t explain itself.
When an answer can’t be seen, that doesn’t mean there isn’t one.
There is something.
Something all too real.
Something beyond frightening.
This story is being presented on Litreading for limited time to help build the audience for its eventual primary home, New Tales Told part of Short Storyverses. New Tales Told is made up of totally original modern stories written with the feel of classic short stories (suitable for all ages). There are now fourteen original stories so please check start listening and subscribing to New Tales Told. On Apple Podcasts it is part of the Short Storyverses Channel.
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]]>Mark Twain was the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, born in 1835. A riverboat pilot, journalist, lecturer, and one of America’s most enduring humorists, Twain built his reputation on sharp observation, comic exaggeration, and a deep skepticism of human certainty. His works include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, but he was equally at home in short essays like this one — small mechanical failures turned into very large human truths.
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]]>Mark Twain was the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, born in 1835. A riverboat pilot, journalist, lecturer, and one of America’s most enduring humorists, Twain built his reputation on sharp observation, comic exaggeration, and a deep skepticism of human certainty. His works include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, but he was equally at home in short essays like this one — small mechanical failures turned into very large human truths.
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]]>This story is being presented on Litreading for limited time to help build the audience for its eventual primary home, New Tales Told part of Short Storyverses. New Tales Told is made up of totally original modern stories written with the feel of classic short stories (suitable for all ages). There are now fourteen original stories so please check start listening and subscribing to New Tales Told. On Apple Podcasts it is part of the Short Storyverses Channel.
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]]>This story is being presented on Litreading for limited time to help build the audience for its eventual primary home, New Tales Told part of Short Storyverses. New Tales Told is made up of totally original modern stories written with the feel of classic short stories (suitable for all ages). There are now fourteen original stories so please check start listening and subscribing to New Tales Told. On Apple Podcasts it is part of the Short Storyverses Channel.
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]]>Mansfield does not moralize. Instead, she observes. Through small gestures and overheard whispers, she reveals how social hierarchies are absorbed and enforced — even by children.
At its center is a tiny amber lamp. And a moment of grace.
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]]>Mansfield does not moralize. Instead, she observes. Through small gestures and overheard whispers, she reveals how social hierarchies are absorbed and enforced — even by children.
At its center is a tiny amber lamp. And a moment of grace.
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]]>It’s about an America that could exist—slowly, legally, and quietly—if people stop asking questions.
Civic Duty follows a retired teacher whose life is reduced to data points, compliance scores, and administrative decisions.
A speculative warning about what happens when systems replace judgment and loyalty becomes measurable.
This story is being presented on Litreading for limited time to help build the audience for its eventual primary home, New Tales Told part of Short Storyverses. New Tales Told is made up of totally original modern stories written with the feel of classic short stories (suitable for all ages). There are now more than a dozen original stories so please check them out.
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]]>It’s about an America that could exist—slowly, legally, and quietly—if people stop asking questions.
Civic Duty follows a retired teacher whose life is reduced to data points, compliance scores, and administrative decisions.
A speculative warning about what happens when systems replace judgment and loyalty becomes measurable.
This story is being presented on Litreading for limited time to help build the audience for its eventual primary home, New Tales Told part of Short Storyverses. New Tales Told is made up of totally original modern stories written with the feel of classic short stories (suitable for all ages). There are now more than a dozen original stories so please check them out.
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]]>With stark realism and relentless tension, London explores humanity’s limits in the face of nature’s indifference. This is not a story of heroic triumph. It is a story of judgment, instinct, and the consequences of small mistakes in unforgiving conditions.
First published in 1908, To Build a Fire remains a timeless classic of American literature.
If you enjoy great stories narrated by Don, be sure to check out his other short story podcasts at shortstoryverses.com
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]]>With stark realism and relentless tension, London explores humanity’s limits in the face of nature’s indifference. This is not a story of heroic triumph. It is a story of judgment, instinct, and the consequences of small mistakes in unforgiving conditions.
First published in 1908, To Build a Fire remains a timeless classic of American literature.
If you enjoy great stories narrated by Don, be sure to check out his other short story podcasts at shortstoryverses.com
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]]>About two people who find each other where they never expected to meet.
And what it means to hold on, even when you know you can’t.
Please check out our other short story universes are shortstoryverses.com
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]]>About two people who find each other where they never expected to meet.
And what it means to hold on, even when you know you can’t.
Please check out our other short story universes are shortstoryverses.com
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]]>In this short, elegant story, a young woman’s desire for wealth and status leads her down a path she never expected.
A quiet masterpiece with a devastating final twist.
Guy de Maupassant was a nineteenth-century French writer and one of the masters of the modern short story.
He wrote hundreds of stories, known for their clarity, irony, and emotional precision.
His work often explored class, ambition, and the hidden costs of desire.
The Necklace, published in 1884, remains one of his most famous and enduring stories.
If you want more stories like this, go to shortstoryverses.com.
You’ll find a whole story universe there: classic literature brought to life, original fiction, stories for younger listeners, and themed collections for whatever mood you’re in.
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]]>In this short, elegant story, a young woman’s desire for wealth and status leads her down a path she never expected.
A quiet masterpiece with a devastating final twist.
Guy de Maupassant was a nineteenth-century French writer and one of the masters of the modern short story.
He wrote hundreds of stories, known for their clarity, irony, and emotional precision.
His work often explored class, ambition, and the hidden costs of desire.
The Necklace, published in 1884, remains one of his most famous and enduring stories.
If you want more stories like this, go to shortstoryverses.com.
You’ll find a whole story universe there: classic literature brought to life, original fiction, stories for younger listeners, and themed collections for whatever mood you’re in.
If you enjoyed this story, buy me an e-book!
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/donmcdonald
or click FOLLOW
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]]>For now, I’ll be sharing my new stories here on Litreading as well—so you can hear them easily, without having to go looking.
Litreading will always remain a home for classic short fiction. These are simply new stories, told in the same spirit.
The Right Call is a work of fiction, loosely inspired by a real turning point in my own life.
The events, characters, station, and circumstances have been changed. What remains is the emotional truth of a moment many people recognize: standing at a crossroads between what looks sensible and what feels right.
This story isn’t about radio.
It’s about listening—to others, and to yourself—when the script stops working.
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]]>For now, I’ll be sharing my new stories here on Litreading as well—so you can hear them easily, without having to go looking.
Litreading will always remain a home for classic short fiction. These are simply new stories, told in the same spirit.
The Right Call is a work of fiction, loosely inspired by a real turning point in my own life.
The events, characters, station, and circumstances have been changed. What remains is the emotional truth of a moment many people recognize: standing at a crossroads between what looks sensible and what feels right.
This story isn’t about radio.
It’s about listening—to others, and to yourself—when the script stops working.
If you enjoyed this story, buy me an e-book!
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/donmcdonald
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]]>Anton Chekhov was a Russian physician, playwright, and master of the modern short story. Writing at the turn of the twentieth century, Chekhov rejected melodrama in favor of moral ambiguity, emotional restraint, and brutal psychological honesty.
His stories rarely offer heroes or villains—only people, trapped by their own beliefs, habits, and blind spots. With surgical precision and profound compassion, Chekhov reshaped fiction, influencing generations of writers who followed.
He believed that a writer’s job was not to provide answers—but to ask questions so clearly that the reader could not escape them.
The Bet is one of his sharpest.
You're invited to explore our many short story podcasts at shortstoryverses.com
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]]>Anton Chekhov was a Russian physician, playwright, and master of the modern short story. Writing at the turn of the twentieth century, Chekhov rejected melodrama in favor of moral ambiguity, emotional restraint, and brutal psychological honesty.
His stories rarely offer heroes or villains—only people, trapped by their own beliefs, habits, and blind spots. With surgical precision and profound compassion, Chekhov reshaped fiction, influencing generations of writers who followed.
He believed that a writer’s job was not to provide answers—but to ask questions so clearly that the reader could not escape them.
The Bet is one of his sharpest.
You're invited to explore our many short story podcasts at shortstoryverses.com
If you enjoyed this story, buy me an e-book!
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/donmcdonald
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]]>This is a special presentation of my new original short story, "The Eternal Code," first released on my companion podcast, New Tales Told. Until the new podcast finds its audience, I will continue to post my original stories at Litreading, too.
Litreading will continue to feature classic short fiction, just as always.
For listeners who enjoy original, contemporary stories, New Tales Told is where I share new work—standalone fiction meant to be experienced in audio. Just search for it on this podcast service or visit shortstoryverses.com
No one remembers the first human thought. But it remembers us.
We tell ourselves that memory lives in bones, in blood, in history books and hard drives. But memory is older than all of that. Memory is the original technology. And once it learned how to survive us, it never stopped evolving.
The Eternal Code is a story about inheritance that has nothing to do with money and everything to do with continuity. About the quiet arrogance of believing we are the end of the line. About a signal so deeply embedded in humanity that we mistake it for destiny.
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]]>This is a special presentation of my new original short story, "The Eternal Code," first released on my companion podcast, New Tales Told. Until the new podcast finds its audience, I will continue to post my original stories at Litreading, too.
Litreading will continue to feature classic short fiction, just as always.
For listeners who enjoy original, contemporary stories, New Tales Told is where I share new work—standalone fiction meant to be experienced in audio. Just search for it on this podcast service or visit shortstoryverses.com
No one remembers the first human thought. But it remembers us.
We tell ourselves that memory lives in bones, in blood, in history books and hard drives. But memory is older than all of that. Memory is the original technology. And once it learned how to survive us, it never stopped evolving.
The Eternal Code is a story about inheritance that has nothing to do with money and everything to do with continuity. About the quiet arrogance of believing we are the end of the line. About a signal so deeply embedded in humanity that we mistake it for destiny.
If you enjoyed this story, buy me an e-book!
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/donmcdonald
or click FOLLOW
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]]>Litreading is part of the "Short Storyverses" podcast network. If you love stories, check out our other shows: Season's Readings for holiday tales, New Tales Told for original fiction, Readastorus for stories the whole family can enjoy, and FRIGHTLY for when you want to lose a little sleep. Find them all at shortstoryverses.com.
If you're enjoying Litreading, take a second to tap that five-star rating on Apple Podcasts (or "Rate the Show" five-stars on Spotify). It helps other listeners find the show—and keeps me from taking that two-star rating too personally. Thanks.
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]]>Litreading is part of the "Short Storyverses" podcast network. If you love stories, check out our other shows: Season's Readings for holiday tales, New Tales Told for original fiction, Readastorus for stories the whole family can enjoy, and FRIGHTLY for when you want to lose a little sleep. Find them all at shortstoryverses.com.
If you're enjoying Litreading, take a second to tap that five-star rating on Apple Podcasts (or "Rate the Show" five-stars on Spotify). It helps other listeners find the show—and keeps me from taking that two-star rating too personally. Thanks.
If you enjoyed this story, buy me an e-book!
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/donmcdonald
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]]>If you enjoyed this story, buy me an e-book!
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or click FOLLOW
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]]>If you enjoyed this story, buy me an e-book!
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]]>
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]]>
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]]>Jack London, born in 1876, rose from poverty and hard labor to become one of America’s most influential writers. A sailor, gold prospector, journalist, and social critic, he wrote with the authority of someone who had lived every inch of hardship he described. His stories of the North—lean, unsentimental, and deeply human—helped define American literary naturalism and continue to shape how we imagine life on the frontier.
If you enjoyed this story, I’d be grateful if you’d share Litreading or leave a quick review. And for more timeless stories—from classics to brand-new originals—visit ShortStoryverses.com, the home of Litreading, Readastorus, New Tales Told, FRIGHTLY!, and Season’s Readings.
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]]>Jack London, born in 1876, rose from poverty and hard labor to become one of America’s most influential writers. A sailor, gold prospector, journalist, and social critic, he wrote with the authority of someone who had lived every inch of hardship he described. His stories of the North—lean, unsentimental, and deeply human—helped define American literary naturalism and continue to shape how we imagine life on the frontier.
If you enjoyed this story, I’d be grateful if you’d share Litreading or leave a quick review. And for more timeless stories—from classics to brand-new originals—visit ShortStoryverses.com, the home of Litreading, Readastorus, New Tales Told, FRIGHTLY!, and Season’s Readings.
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]]>Set at a train station in Spain, it captures a quiet conversation between two lovers waiting for a train — a moment in which everything that matters lies between the lines.
Presented by Litreading, part of Short Storyverses — where classic and original tales are read with depth and heart.
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]]>Set at a train station in Spain, it captures a quiet conversation between two lovers waiting for a train — a moment in which everything that matters lies between the lines.
Presented by Litreading, part of Short Storyverses — where classic and original tales are read with depth and heart.
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]]>In The Skylight Room, we meet a bright, hopeful young woman renting the smallest, loneliest room in New York. But she still finds a way to fill it—with imagination, with laughter, and with a star she names Billy Jackson.
What happens next is pure O. Henry: tender, tragic, and—somehow—still kind of beautiful.
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]]>In The Skylight Room, we meet a bright, hopeful young woman renting the smallest, loneliest room in New York. But she still finds a way to fill it—with imagination, with laughter, and with a star she names Billy Jackson.
What happens next is pure O. Henry: tender, tragic, and—somehow—still kind of beautiful.
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]]>In this episode, we go on an adventure off the coast of South America, as a famous big game hunter finds himself stranded on an island where hunting has been elevated to a new and frightening level. It’s time to play “The Most Dangerous Game.”
"The Most Dangerous Game" has been called "the most popular story ever written in English" and was made into a 1932 movie. It’s author, Richard Connell was one of the most famous American short story writers in the early 20th Century. He was also a screenwriter who won an Academy Award in 1942 for his original screenplay “Meet John Doe.”
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]]>In this episode, we go on an adventure off the coast of South America, as a famous big game hunter finds himself stranded on an island where hunting has been elevated to a new and frightening level. It’s time to play “The Most Dangerous Game.”
"The Most Dangerous Game" has been called "the most popular story ever written in English" and was made into a 1932 movie. It’s author, Richard Connell was one of the most famous American short story writers in the early 20th Century. He was also a screenwriter who won an Academy Award in 1942 for his original screenplay “Meet John Doe.”
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]]>Kate Chopin, born in 1850, was among the first American writers to explore the hidden truths of everyday lives. Living in Louisiana, she drew on its people and culture to shape her work. Her novel The Awakening shocked readers of her time but is now praised as a classic of American realism. In her short stories, like Doctor Chevalier’s Lie, she showed how even the smallest choices can carry profound humanity.
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]]>Kate Chopin, born in 1850, was among the first American writers to explore the hidden truths of everyday lives. Living in Louisiana, she drew on its people and culture to shape her work. Her novel The Awakening shocked readers of her time but is now praised as a classic of American realism. In her short stories, like Doctor Chevalier’s Lie, she showed how even the smallest choices can carry profound humanity.
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]]>Often, it is the shortest stories that impart the most profound notions. This tale is one of many thoughtful, brief short stories penned by late 19th-century American feminist author Kate Chopin. Chopin was a prolific writer, who published more than 100 short stories and novels before her death in 1904.
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]]>Often, it is the shortest stories that impart the most profound notions. This tale is one of many thoughtful, brief short stories penned by late 19th-century American feminist author Kate Chopin. Chopin was a prolific writer, who published more than 100 short stories and novels before her death in 1904.
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]]>The child of a rural family doctor in Maine, Sarah Orne Jewett was writing short stories professionally from age 18. Most of her work was purchased by The Atlantic magazine, with the glaring exception of "The White Heron." The story went of the become the title piece of her first book and her most popular story.
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]]>The child of a rural family doctor in Maine, Sarah Orne Jewett was writing short stories professionally from age 18. Most of her work was purchased by The Atlantic magazine, with the glaring exception of "The White Heron." The story went of the become the title piece of her first book and her most popular story.
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]]>Bohemian author Franz Kafka is considered one of the greats. Few storytellers have had their names turned into adjectives. Orwellian, maybe Hitchcockian come to mind. But the best known of these is Kafkaesque, whose meaning is elusive, like that of many Kafka stories. I have my own somewhat religious interpretation of “Before the Law.” I will leave it to you to ponder your own.
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]]>Bohemian author Franz Kafka is considered one of the greats. Few storytellers have had their names turned into adjectives. Orwellian, maybe Hitchcockian come to mind. But the best known of these is Kafkaesque, whose meaning is elusive, like that of many Kafka stories. I have my own somewhat religious interpretation of “Before the Law.” I will leave it to you to ponder your own.
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]]>He called himself O. Henry, but the man behind the pen was William Sydney Porter—a sneaky little Texan with a mustache, a wicked sense of irony, and a knack for surprise endings that snap like mousetraps. He wrote hundreds of short stories while dodging his past, which included a stint as a pharmacist, a failed bank career (let’s just say the books didn’t balance), and yes, a little time behind bars. But prison gave him a pen name and plenty of time to dream up twisty tales of crooks with hearts of gold, lovers with bad timing, and small moments that change everything.
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]]>He called himself O. Henry, but the man behind the pen was William Sydney Porter—a sneaky little Texan with a mustache, a wicked sense of irony, and a knack for surprise endings that snap like mousetraps. He wrote hundreds of short stories while dodging his past, which included a stint as a pharmacist, a failed bank career (let’s just say the books didn’t balance), and yes, a little time behind bars. But prison gave him a pen name and plenty of time to dream up twisty tales of crooks with hearts of gold, lovers with bad timing, and small moments that change everything.
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]]>Anton Chekhov was Russia’s great observer of the quiet tragedies hiding in ordinary lives. A doctor by trade and a writer by necessity, he had an uncanny ability to turn small moments into revelations. His plays reshaped modern theater, his stories redefined the short form, and together they whispered a timeless truth: life is never as simple—or as sweet—as we hope it to be.
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]]>Anton Chekhov was Russia’s great observer of the quiet tragedies hiding in ordinary lives. A doctor by trade and a writer by necessity, he had an uncanny ability to turn small moments into revelations. His plays reshaped modern theater, his stories redefined the short form, and together they whispered a timeless truth: life is never as simple—or as sweet—as we hope it to be.
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]]>One of listeners most requested authors is Saki, the pen name of British write H.H. Munro. His incredible short stories run the gamut from biting satire to shockingly macabre.
At age 43, Munro insisted on enlisting as a mere trooper to fight for the British in World War One and was killed by a German sniper in 1916.
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]]>One of listeners most requested authors is Saki, the pen name of British write H.H. Munro. His incredible short stories run the gamut from biting satire to shockingly macabre.
At age 43, Munro insisted on enlisting as a mere trooper to fight for the British in World War One and was killed by a German sniper in 1916.
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]]>Extracts from Adam’s Diary was written in 1904, the final decade of Samuel Clemens's (aka Mark Twain’s) life, and was published as a short book. The character of Adam is obviously based on Twain himself, and Eve was his wife Lily. Shortly after writing this story, Lily died. This may have led to Twain penning “The Diary of Eve,” which was first published in 1905.
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]]>Extracts from Adam’s Diary was written in 1904, the final decade of Samuel Clemens's (aka Mark Twain’s) life, and was published as a short book. The character of Adam is obviously based on Twain himself, and Eve was his wife Lily. Shortly after writing this story, Lily died. This may have led to Twain penning “The Diary of Eve,” which was first published in 1905.
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]]>When Mark Twain (whose real name was Samuel Clemens) wrote “Eve’s Diary” he was in his 80s and had enjoyed and long career as an author, speaker, and publisher. Two years before its publication, Twain had penned “Extracts from Adam’s Diary” (also available on Litreading). Shortly thereafter his wife of 34 years, Olivia (Lily) died. While he never explicitly said as much, many believe this to be his final love letter to her.
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]]>When Mark Twain (whose real name was Samuel Clemens) wrote “Eve’s Diary” he was in his 80s and had enjoyed and long career as an author, speaker, and publisher. Two years before its publication, Twain had penned “Extracts from Adam’s Diary” (also available on Litreading). Shortly thereafter his wife of 34 years, Olivia (Lily) died. While he never explicitly said as much, many believe this to be his final love letter to her.
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