The story shelf

Follow your curiosity.

A name you know. A mood you’re in. Ten minutes to yourself. Start anywhere.

31 stories · Selected from the catalog

A grieving Irishman treats a palmist’s predictions as a treasure map and pursues the stranger meant to bring him luck.

13 min · Humorous

A lonely baker imagines that a quiet customer is a struggling artist and finds a tender way to help him.

6 min · Humorous

In a crime-free future, a pulp writer discovers that a perfect society has left him dangerously short of material.

4 min · Humorous

A Venus-bound rocket crew blunders into battle in a delirious send-up of space-adventure pulp.

3 min · Humorous

On a crowded war-bound ship in 1864, a plague of lice gives two samurai factions something more urgent to fight about.

9 min · Humorous

A Buddhist priest’s determined campaign to shorten his extraordinary nose brings him the attention he thought he wanted—and a new humiliation.

13 min · Humorous

A powerful daimyo’s magnificent gold pipe is the perfect emblem of status—until court attendants discover they can simply ask for one.

14 min · Humorous