Reviews for:
The Day My Toilet Left Me and Other Odd Tales

Customer Review

C. N. Orr
4 out of 5 stars. A smorgasbord of bite-size stories
Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2026
Format: Kindle
Verified Purchase
My reader verified score is 80%. Melde’s “The Day My Toilet Left Me ...” is a smorgasbord of bite-size short stories that take only minutes to get through. The tales' settings range from the caveman Ogg who lived at the dawn of human history to the year 2097 when immersion movies allow the character Miya to experience a different reality via neural interlace implants. Each story begins with an Author’s Note which explains the narrative’s origin, meaning, characters, background, genre, plot and/or ending.

Because these are short stories, they are generally light rather than profound or deeply emotional, and they are easy to absorb. Many have twists that can catch you off-guard, and I think readers will be entertained by this collection.

Paul A.
5 out of 5 stars. The Day My Toilet Left Me. Quirky enjoyable stories.
Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2026
Format: Kindle
Verified Purchase
My reader verified score is 86%. When I saw the title, The Day My Toilet Left Me and Other Odd Tales, I knew I had to read this book. I wasn’t disappointed. David Molde’s collection of short stories was just as strange and entertaining as I hoped it would be. His subject matter ranges from the profound to the silly. What linked them together was his insight into what makes life livable and his astounding craftsmanship of language.

His stories are extremely short. They elicit the experience of reading a haiku. The endings come in the midst of a plot twist or an incomplete climax, leaving the reader suspended, just barely absorbing the emotional impact of the tale and wondering, ‘What was this all about?’

Paired with each story are Molde’s “Author’s Notes” that analyze their emotional depth and explain origins and inspirations. These prefaces are sometimes nearly as long as the stories they precede and are an integral element of the book’s structure and tone. It’s almost as if they don’t really reflect the actual author’s feelings but are part of the book’s friction. I can’t imagine these collections of stories without his notes.

Read this book. It will make you smile and also contemplate ideas that have never come to you before. This was a thoroughly engaging read.

5 out of 5 stars: A great book, ten minutes at a time.
Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2026
Format: Kindle
Verified Purchase
My readerverified score is 92%. The Day My Toilet Left Me and Other Odd Tales by David Melde is a fun collection of short stories that challenge reality. Using humor and sometimes magical objects, its playful nature is often poignant. I appreciate the author's notes at the beginning of each story, which set up his intent.

My favorite story is titled The Snowflake Sisters. In it, Rosie and Josie are twins who live near the North Pole. They build a snowglobe for their clubhouse and try to avoid the blue dwarfs. All 61 stories are quirky and enjoyable, combining wit, comedy, and a slice of imagination. Bravo!