LitReading - Classic Short Stories and Timeless Tales

The Wrong Funeral — An Original Short Story by Don McDonald

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

Care Protocol — An Original Audio Novella — Episode One

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

The Garden's Wall — An Original Story by Don McDonald

The Garden was finished before anyone in it was born. The rain arrives on schedule, in the amount that has been decided. The manual has never been improved on. Nobody to

The Reticence of Lady Anne — A Classic Short Story by Saki

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, th

The Outcasts of Poker Flat — A Classic Short Story by Bret Harte

Poker Flat is a mining camp that has recently decided to take its virtue seriously. When the town's new moral committee finishes its business, four of its most familiar f

NOT A STORY

This is not a story. 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 a

A Wasted Day — A Classic Short Story by Richard Harding Davis

Arnold Thorndike buys a Correggio before breakfast and can price his own time to the minute. Two hundred dollars of it. So when he stops his car at the Court of General S

The Huntsman — A Classic Short Story by Anton Chekhov

High summer, and it is too hot to sing. A huntsman walks a road with a gun on his shoulder, a bird in his bag, and a dog running ahead of him. A woman steps out of the ry

Chain of Custody — An Original Tale by Don McDonald

This story is the first story specifically written for HumorUs Stories, a funny story podcast from ShortStoryverses.com. In Maple Glen, nothing ever happens. This week,

The Long Light — An Original Short Story by Don McDonald

Nora has come up to Lake Sabbath to do one hard, practical thing — close the old family house for good, and mark what will be sold. She means to stay a single night. But

The Nice People — A Classic Short Story by H.C. Brunner

Atop Orange Mountain, in Mr. Jacobus's summer boarding house, a bored married couple finds relief from their tiresome fellow guests in the arrival of the Bredes — a grace

The Wizard's Touch — A Classic Short Story by Alice Brown

The critics call Jerome Wilmer a wizard. They say he doesn't paint faces — he paints hopes, fears, and longings, and that no secret survives sitting for one of his portra

The Storm — A Classic Short Story by Kate Chopin

Here is a special bonus episode for your summer listening pleasure. A sweltering summer afternoon on the Louisiana coast, a storm racing in off the Gulf, and a woman alo

The Garden Party — A Classic Short Story by Katherine Mansfield

A perfect summer morning, a lawn being readied for the most delightful garden party of the season, and a death just down the hill that no one quite knows what to do with.

The Castaway — A Classic Short Story by W.W. Jacobs

Another perfect Summer Story from Litreading. A sailor given up for drowned walks back through his own shop door, three years gone, with a fresh scar and a long story ab

A Day in the Country – A Classic Tale by Anton Chekov

Welcome to our first special summer story of 2026. A May storm rolls over a Russian village, and a small beggar-girl runs through it looking for Terenty the cobbler. Her

A Rose for Emily — A Classic Short Story by William Faulkner

A woman alone in a decaying house. A town that watches her for fifty years, pitying, judging, whispering, and never once truly seeing her. And one room upstairs that no o

Dark — An Original Short Story by Don McDonald

An original story, written and read by me, Don McDonald. This one began with something I read and couldn't shake. The universe is expanding, and it won't stop, and the s

Miss Brill — A Classic Short Story by Katherine Mansfield

On a bright Sunday afternoon in a French public garden, a lonely English teacher lifts her treasured fox fur from its box, settles onto her usual bench, and quietly borro

Man or Monster — An Original Civil War Short Story by Don McDonald

In August 1864, thirty thousand Union prisoners were dying behind a wall of felled pine in southern Georgia. The man in command was a Swiss-born captain with a ruined arm