LitReading - Classic Short Stories and Timeless Tales

Short StoryVerses
Short StoryVerses
  • 4.8 (326)
  • Fiction
  • Updated Weekly

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.

  1. 2d ago

    The McWilliamses and the Burglar Alarm by Mark Twain — Confounding Contraptions Are Nothing New

    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 imposing alarm in America. It had a gong the size of a washbowl, forty-seven little tags, and an expert from New York who always came when called, and always remembered to send a bill. Twain, who had an alarm put into his own Hartford house the year before he wrote this, lets the man talk. First published in Harper’s Christmas supplement, December 1882. This is a recently remastered story from our archive. If you enjoyed this story, buy me an e-book! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/donmcdonald or click FOLLOW Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    The McWilliamses and the Burglar Alarm by Mark Twain — Confounding Contraptions Are Nothing New

  2. 5d ago

    Still Water by Don McDonald — Four aircraft carriers in a lake?

    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 them back by morning. Everyone blames the sensor. The sensor is fine. What follows is the worst thing a careful man can discover, which is that he's been measuring the right thing all along. 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. If you enjoyed this story, buy me an e-book! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/donmcdonald or click FOLLOW Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Still Water by Don McDonald — Four aircraft carriers in a lake?

  3. Oct 8

    The Romance of a Busy Broker by O. Henry — A Wall Street Love Story with a Twist

    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 slipping. His stenographer has something on her mind. Then a window opens, and somebody on the Exchange starts clubbing the stuffing out of Union Pacific. 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. If you enjoyed this story, buy me an e-book! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/donmcdonald or click FOLLOW Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    The Romance of a Busy Broker by O. Henry — A Wall Street Love Story with a Twist

  4. Oct 5

    Autopay by Don McDonald — Following Her Dead Mother’s Credit Card

    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. 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. Explore our multiverses of short fiction at shortstoryverses.com. If you enjoyed this story, buy me an e-book! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/donmcdonald or click FOLLOW Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Autopay by Don McDonald — Following Her Dead Mother’s Credit Card

  5. Oct 1

    Tobermory by Saki — A Proper British Cat Tells All

    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 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 If you enjoyed this story, buy me an e-book! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/donmcdonald or click FOLLOW Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Tobermory by Saki — A Proper British Cat Tells All

  6. Sep 28

    His Own Voice by Don McDonald — A Graphophone Records What Was Never Said

    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 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. For more short stories, visit ShortStoryverses.com If you enjoyed this story, buy me an e-book! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/donmcdonald or click FOLLOW Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    His Own Voice by Don McDonald — A Graphophone Records What Was Never Said

  7. Sep 24

    A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell — The Women See What the Men Miss

    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 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. If you enjoyed this story, buy me an e-book! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/donmcdonald or click FOLLOW Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell — The Women See What the Men Miss

  8. Sep 21

    A Foot Too Deep by Don McDonald — A Blacksmith Chooses the Terms of a New Orleans Duel

    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, seven feet of him and slow to speak, said something true on the floor of the legislature, and the whole chamber laughed. 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. If you enjoyed this story, buy me an e-book! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/donmcdonald or click FOLLOW Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    A Foot Too Deep by Don McDonald — A Blacksmith Chooses the Terms of a New Orleans Duel
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4.8
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About

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.

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