LitReading - Original Short Stories and Classic Tales

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 century. Also called "In a Bamboo Grove," this 1929 short story was inspiration for the critically acclaimed 1950 Japanese film, "Rashomon." We are so hono...

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." 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 ove...

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 banker and part-time author Ellis Parker Butler was prolific writing more than 2,000 stories that were published in well over 200 magazines in the early 20...

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. 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 ov...

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. 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...

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 Prize. A brilliant author author of novels, short stories and plays, Zona Gale was the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prie for Drama for the stage ada...

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. Munro. His incredible short stories run the gamut from biting satire to shockingly macabre. At age 43, Munro insisted on enlisting as a mere trooper to fight...

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. 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 Subscrib...

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? 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...

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 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...

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 Enchanted Bluff." Willa Cather published "The Enchanted Bluff" in "Harper's Magazine" in 1909 during a period when her writing skills were blossoming in...

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 that of the the inhabitants of the West could, at times be vast. Samuel Clemens was born in Florida in 1835, but it wasn’t until 27 years later that...

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 adapted into "A Jury of Her Peers” It is loosely based on a murder covered while working as a reporter for the Des Moines Daily News. We are so honored to h...

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 example of a talented early 20th Century authors. Known as The American Agatha Christie, she is best known for her mystery stories. A character in her 1920 pl...

Money has the power to take us away, if only temporarily, from the due routines of life. However, there is always a price to pay for our fiscal flights of fancy and real life eventually hoists its humdrum head again. 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...

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, despite our apparent differences, we are all same. Dickens wrote "Nobody’s Story" to honor those who toil in anonymity and suffer quietly. It was ori...

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 what the British called the Incident on King Street but was referred to my early Americans as "The Boston Massacre." To commemorate the 250th annive...

A special Father's Day episode of Litreading 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 out narrative podcasts at shortstoryve...

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. 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 stor...

What must life have been like in the Garden of Eden for the first man, Adam, and that new creature who suddenly appeared in his idyllic life? Well, left to the imagination of Mark Twain, the story takes a fanciful and funny early 20th-century take on Genesis. Extracts from Adam’s Diary was written in 1904, the final decade of Samuel Clemens's (aka Mark Twain’s) life, and was published as a short b...

Imagine waking up in a strange and wonderful place with no memory and no one to guide you. Your world is filled with strange creatures and incredible beauty along with one enigmatic creature who looks similar to you but is still quite different. Here is the sequel to “Extracts from Adam’s Diary.” When Mark Twain (whose real name was Samuel Clemens) wrote “Eve’s Diary” he was in his 80s and had enj...