LitReading - Short Stories and Timeless Tales

By Short StoryversesArts Books Fiction Performing Arts

Favorites
84
Followers
Typical duration
19 min
per episode

Based on Podcast App listening data

LitReading - Short Stories and Timeless Tales episodes

November 13, 2025 The Reluctant Dragon by Kenneth Grahame — A Peace-Loving Dragon Would Rather Discuss Poetry
Not all dragons are fire breathing monsters bent on destruction.

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.
1 hr 3 min
November 12, 2025 Old Well-Well by Zane Grey — Baseball’s Greatest Fan Watches His Protégé Come to Bat
Professional baseball in United States dates back more than 150 years. It has been considered the great American sport since the 19th century. Popular sports attract rabid fans as was the case even back in 1910 when Zane Grey wrote Old Well Well.

Known for his Western novels, Zane Gray was one of the most popular authors of the 20th century. Gray was also a huge baseball fan and published a number of stories about the sport. One of the first American authors to become a millionaire, more than 100 movies were made from his popular tales.

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.
25 min
November 11, 2025 Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway — A Couple Debates a Decision Neither Will Name
Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” is one of the most celebrated short stories ever written — a masterclass in subtext, restraint, and emotional tension.

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.
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.
12 min
November 06, 2025 Clovis on Parental Responsibility by Saki — Clovis Takes On an Overly Proud Mother
Saki's recurring character, Clovis takes on an overly proud mother
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.
8 min
November 05, 2025 The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County by Mark Twain — A Gambler, a Frog and One Very Heavy Surprise
Mark Twain's first popular story of a hardcore gambler in a mining camp during the Gold Rush.

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.
16 min
November 04, 2025 The Skylight Room by O. Henry — A Poor Young Woman Finds Hope Through a Skylight
O. Henry had a gift for wrapping heartbreak in humor. His stories feel light, almost playful—until that last line hits and you realize he’s been quietly aiming for your chest the whole time.

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.
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.
18 min
October 29, 2025 The Tell Tale Heart-A Classic Horror Story by Edgar Allan Poe
Halloween is the season of the macabre and one the greatest authors of dark frightening fiction was Edgar Allen Poe.

You can cover the body. Hide the blood. Swear you’re sane. But you can’t silence the sound. Beneath the floorboards… something still beats.

Considered to be the finest American Gothic writer of all time, Edgar Allen Poe loved to pen short stories. Of course, his best known tales are his darkest. This makes sense as Poe himself stated that he often suffered from bouts of depression and madness.
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.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
15 min
October 28, 2025 The Hanging Stranger–a Retro Sci-Fi Horror Story by Philip K. Dick
This is one of those scary stories that sneaks up on you. It looks like just another day in small-town America, sometime around the early 1950s. But then, something is wrong. Something is hanging there. And what’s most unsettling isn’t the horror itself — it’s how calmly everyone else reacts.

Philip K. Dick wrote The Hanging Stranger in 1953, and it remains one of his most chilling short stories. It’s about paranoia, conformity, and the terrifying idea that maybe you’re the only one who sees the truth.

Philip K. Dick (1928–1982) was one of the most influential science fiction writers of the 20th century, famous for works like Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (which inspired Blade Runner), The Man in the High Castle, and Ubik. His stories often explore paranoia, alternate realities, and the fragile line between perception and truth.

The Hanging Stranger was first published in 1953 in the pulp magazine Science Fiction Adventures. Under U.S. copyright law, any story published before 1964 had to have its copyright renewed in the 28th year after publication. If the renewal wasn’t filed, the work automatically fell into the public domain. The copyright for The Hanging Stranger was never renewed, so it is now freely available for adaptation and performance.
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.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
39 min
October 27, 2025 The Haunted Mind–a Scary Season Story by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Since the dawn of our species, we have been bewildered by about that strange period of altered consciousness that occurs just before, during, and at the end of our daily slumber.
Our next story expressively explores this activity that we all share and which still eludes understanding.

This piece was more of an observational essay than a classic short story. Its author, Nathaniel Hawthorne was one of the young United States most brilliant fiction writers. Even today, his tales retain as much power as they had all most two centuries ago. His most famous novels were published at the dawn of the 1850s, “The Scarlet Letter” and “The House of the Seven Gables.”

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.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
14 min
October 24, 2025 Diary Of A Madman–a Classic Tale of Terror by Guy de Maupassant
In this truly chilling tale, we explore the darkest parts of the human mind - the hidden recesses where derangement resides.

A word of caution: this tale is very dark and is not suitable for younger children.

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.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
16 min