Fiction

LitReading - Classic Short Stories and Timeless Tales

by Short Storyverses

Share this ranking Is this your show? Claim it

Listen on Apple Podcasts RSS feed

Chart positions today · Brazil

Not on the Brazil charts we track today.

If you like LitReading - Classic Short Stories and…, try…

FRIGHTLY! Scary Stories and Tales of Terror

From Short Storyverses

HumorUs Stories — Classic and Original Funny Stories

Latest episodes

Below Ten Thousand by Don McDonald — All the Time and No Time

October 19, 2026 · 13 min

He has four words. He's had them for forty-two years. He's said them in the car, he's said them in the shower with the water running, and he still can't get the stress to fall where it belongs. Now the seatbelt sign is on, the descent has…
The McWilliamses and the Burglar Alarm by Mark Twain — Confounding Contraptions Are Nothing New

October 15, 2026 · 17 min

Mark Twain falls into conversation with a pleasant gentleman who has mild opinions on weather, crops, literature, scandal and religion. Then the talk lands on burglar alarms, and the gentleman is suddenly not mild at all. His was the most…
Still Water by Don McDonald — Four aircraft carriers in a lake?

October 12, 2026 · 45 min

Dr. Nathan Cole measures water for a living. It's quiet work, gauges and spreadsheets, the slow arithmetic of things that don't change much. Then a reservoir gains four inches overnight with no rain, no inflow, no explanation, and gives…
The Romance of a Busy Broker by O. Henry — A Wall Street Love Story with a Twist

October 8, 2026 · 10 min

Wall Street, a spring morning at the turn of the century. The ticker is running hot, the telephone won’t quit, and Harvey Maxwell, broker, is handling it all like a man with springs where his heart should be. His clerk thinks the boss is…
Autopay by Don McDonald — Following Her Dead Mother’s Credit Card

October 5, 2026 · 18 min

There is a job nobody warns you about. After the dying comes the paperwork, the hold music, the strangers in call centers who need proof that she is gone. For two years she was her mother’s caregiver. Now she is her mother’s administrator…

Show 7 more episodesShow fewer episodes

Tobermory by Saki — A Proper British Cat Tells All

October 1, 2026 · 20 min

Every house party has a guest who knows too much. 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…
His Own Voice by Don McDonald — A Graphophone Records What Was Never Said

September 28, 2026 · 12 min

Winter, 1906. A clerk who speaks to no one from Saturday to Monday buys a mahogany graphophone for far less than it’s worth. The widow selling it keeps her eyes on the snow. Her husband, she says, liked to keep his own voice. He carries it…
A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell — The Women See What the Men Miss

September 24, 2026 · 45 min

A farmer lies dead in his bed with a rope around his neck. That morning his wife sat in the kitchen, pleating her apron, and said she slept through it. So the men come out to the farmhouse: the sheriff, the county attorney, and the…
A Foot Too Deep by Don McDonald — A Blacksmith Chooses the Terms of a New Orleans Duel

September 21, 2026 · 15 min

Nobody in New Orleans had ever made Bernard de Marigny look foolish in public. He was rich past counting, small as a foil, and very likely the most dangerous man in Louisiana with a pistol in his hand. Then a blacksmith from a far parish…
A Slice of Life by P. G. Wodehouse — A Chemist, a Baronet and a Girl Locked Upstairs

September 17, 2026 · 36 min

A man in a country pub insists his story is true. It concerns his brother Wilfred, a chemist of some genius, a jolly outdoor girl with a wholesome sunburn, and a Yorkshire baronet who spells his name with four small f's. Somebody is being…
The Wrong Funeral by Don McDonald — An Obituary Arrives Forty Years Too Late

September 14, 2026 · 12 min

An obituary arrives in the mail, folded in thirds, no note, no return address, and the creases are sharp enough to cut with. Roy Kittleson has not seen the man named in it since a Friday in 1986, and he has his reasons, and none of them…
Care Protocol, Episode One — When Self-Driving Cars Start Killing

September 11, 2026 · 40 min

Here is the first episode of a new Short Storyverses limited series podcast, Care Protocol. 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…

Full episode archive on Apple Podcasts →

About the show

Great stories deserve to be heard. Every week, LitReading brings you a complete classic or original short story, carefully chosen and beautifully narrated by Don McDonald. Discover unforgettable tales by Poe, Twain, O. Henry, Wharton, and other celebrated writers—along with overlooked gems waiting to be heard again. Episodes range from a few captivating minutes to a deeply immersive hour. With warmth, clarity, and just enough character to bring each tale to life, LitReading turns every drive, walk, quiet evening, or sleepless night into time well spent. Come for a story. Leave with a world. Litreading is part of Short Storyverses (shortstoryverses.com), a growing collection of podcasts devoted to exceptional storytelling. Explore New Tales Told—our companion series of original stories inspired by the tone and spirit of the classics; Season’s Readings to brighten your holidays any time of year; FRIGHTLY! for tales of terror; and Readastorus for for younger listeners. Search for all of these titles wherever you get your podcasts. If you enjoy LitReading, please tap Follow in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or whichever podcast app you use. It costs nothing, makes sure you don’t miss a story, and helps other listeners discover the show. And if you already follow us, please share this episode with one person who loves a great story. All episodes are narrated by professional voice actor, Don McDonald Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.