LitReading - Classic Short Stories

Humans have shared stories for millennia. For most of that time, telling tales was a verbal process. A storyteller would regale an audience with accounts of adventure, bravery, compassion, despair, enlightenment, and fear. Stories were a shared experience, until the advent of inexpensive mass-printing processes in the 19th century which allowed most of us to read to ourselves. Yet, that desire to have a story read aloud is still ingrained in our collective soul.

While we still read books for pleasure, most of today’s stories are told via newer forms of visual media like movies and television. Consuming stories via any visual medium requires an active commitment to the process. You probably shouldn’t read a book or watch a TV program while driving, but your brain still craves a good story.

An audio book is suitable for a long road trip. But what about those times when you only have a few minutes? Enter the audio short story.

Allow me to help you fill those moments and fulfill your need for a captivating tale with readings of some of the world’s greatest literary masters best brief works.

My love of the spoken word has been honed by a more than 30-year career in radio and voice acting with a modicum of performance passion from decades of stage performances.

This venture is my hobby (I have a great full-time job), so much of the content is free of cost. I hope you enjoy them.

If you would like to share thoughts or comments, please drop me a line. If you enjoy these stories, please spread the word, subscribe, and leave a review on your favorite podcast service.

Thanks for stopping by,

Don McDonald

Fiction
Performing Arts
Books
101
Three Questions by Leo Tolstoy
What should we do, when should we do it, and whose direction should we take? Those three questions have plagued humanity throughout time. Where can the answers be found or are they unanswerable?
10 min
102
In a Grove by Ryunosuke Akutagawa
What is truth? How does our perception color the facts as we observe them. Those differences how we see the world complicates this Japanese murder investigation in this renowned short story. This profound modernist fable has echoed for almost a...
22 min
103
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Would it be better to start life as an old man and end it as an infant? That was the question posed by Mark Twain that inspired F. Scott Fitzgerald to write his short story, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."
56 min
104
The Great American Pie Company by Ellis Parker ...
People dream of success. Those ambitions can often be prodigious. Rarely, however, do our future business strategies develop as quickly as do those in this story that encapsulates the economic concerns of the early 20th Century. For a full-time...
27 min
105
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
Prepare to be moved by one of the most unusual short stories ever written, which tells a chilling tale of the simple life and complex death of a slave-owning planter in Union-occupied Alabama during the Civil War.
23 min
106
The Million Pound Bank Note
This classic Mark Twain tale is a witty commentary on poverty and wealth. There is much of Twain’s personal circumstance reflected in the story, as Twain had himself recently gone from riches to bankruptcy.
47 min
107
The Way the World Is by Zona Gale
Falling in love is one of humanities most common events and biggest mysteries. What is it that ignites one person's passion for another. This poignant tale of surprisingly falling for someone was penned by the first woman playwright to win a Pulitzer...
21 min
108
The Interlopers by Saki
A long-running feud leads two men to face each other and the ravages of nature in this powerful classic story by one the best short story authors of all time. One of listeners most requested authors is Saki, the pen name of British write H.H....
14 min
109
Memoirs of a Yellow Dog by O. Henry
I am a big fan of dogs and am fascinated with their non-verbal communication skills. I also enjoy dog stories and the writing of O. Henry, so what could be better to end season two of Litreading than a dog story written by O. Henry. Each season of...
12 min
110
My Financial Career by Stephen Leacock
We all have our particular foibles and phobias. Today’s humorous short story focuses on one whose greatest fear is of banks. Would that be ripiaphobia?
6 min
111
Jimmy Rose by Herman Melville
Life can deal any of us some terrible blows. In this semi-auto biographical tale we explore the life of a once wealthy merchant, Jimmy Rose
27 min
112
The Enchanted Bluff by Willa Cather
Here is a wonderfully nostalgic tale of a time when boys could enjoy a taste of freedom, share ideas, and let’s their imaginations run wild, before the responsibilities of life overrode such fancies. You're invited to get lost at the foot of "The...
22 min
113
Nevada Funeral - Scotty Briggs and the Clergyma...
In the 19th century, the United States was as diverse from region to region as were the country’s of Europe, except for the fact that we spoke some semblance of the same language. However, the language divide between proper Easern American English and...
11 min
114
A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell
In the early 19th century country a farmer is murdered in his home. While investigated, local authorities task a local women with gathering a few things for the wife who was arrested for the crime. Susan Glaspell wrote a one-act play which she...
44 min
115
Gentle Hand by Mary Roberts Rinehart
During these stressful times, forced into close quarters with those we love. we may find ourselves growing angry when a softer approach tends to me far more effective as is illustrated in this story. Mary Roberts Rinehart is yet another fine...
13 min
116
Nobodys Story by Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens was a constant observer of the plight of his fellows and critical of the divisions between humanity’s strata. In this deep and poignant parable of mankind’s need to be recognized by others he arrives at the conclusion that in the end,...
15 min
117
The Boston Massacre by Nathaniel Hawthorne
What began as a street brawl on a winter evening in Boston, became one the biggest sparks to help ignite the American revolution. 250 years ago, on March 5th 1770, anger over the British housing troops among civilians in Massachusetts boiled over into...
12 min
118
Father Forgets by W. Livingston Larned
A special Father's Day episode of Litreading
5 min
119
The Prophet - Part Two by Khalil Gibran
Here is the second half of Kahlil Gibran's global bestselling book with sage advice on pain and pleasure, good and evil, and the inevitability of death.
39 min
120
The Prophet - Part One by Khalil Gibran
For almost a century, the profound words of The Prophet have stirred the hearts and moved the souls of millions of readers around the world.
38 min
121
Jabberwocky
From the mind behind "Alice in Wonderland" comes one of the best examples of nonsense poetry. Jabberwocky tells the tale of a young knight who slays a mythical beast.
3 min