diff --git a/changelog.md b/changelog.md
--- a/changelog.md
+++ b/changelog.md
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+1.1:
+
+* Decode UTF8 leniently, so non-UTF8 will no longer cause a crash.  Removed
+the --ignore-encoding-errors flag, since that's the default behaviour now.
+
 1.0:
 
 * Merged a whole bunch of patches from Sergey Vinokurov.  Copy paste from
diff --git a/fast-tags.cabal b/fast-tags.cabal
--- a/fast-tags.cabal
+++ b/fast-tags.cabal
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 name: fast-tags
-version: 1.0.1
+version: 1.1.0
 cabal-version: >= 1.8
 build-type: Simple
 synopsis: Fast incremental vi and emacs tags.
@@ -42,20 +42,23 @@
 flag fast
     description:
         Spend more time optimizing a program (may yield up to 25% speedup)
-    default:     False
+    default: False
 
 library
     build-depends:
         base >= 3 && < 5, containers, cpphs >1.18, filepath, directory,
         -- text 0.11.1.12 has a bug.
-        text (> 0.11.1.12 || < 0.11.1.12), deepseq
+        text (> 0.11.1.12 || < 0.11.1.12),
+        bytestring,
+        deepseq
     exposed-modules: FastTags
     hs-source-dirs: src
     ghc-options: -Wall -fno-warn-name-shadowing
     ghc-prof-options: -Wall -fno-warn-name-shadowing -auto-all
     if flag(fast)
         ghc-options:
-            -funfolding-creation-threshold=10000 -funfolding-use-threshold=2500
+            -funfolding-creation-threshold=10000
+            -funfolding-use-threshold=2500
 
 executable fast-tags
     main-is: src/Main.hs
@@ -63,12 +66,14 @@
         base >= 3 && < 5, containers, filepath, directory,
         -- text 0.11.1.12 has a bug.
         text (> 0.11.1.12 || < 0.11.1.12),
+        bytestring,
         fast-tags
     ghc-options: -Wall -fno-warn-name-shadowing
     ghc-prof-options: -Wall -fno-warn-name-shadowing -auto-all
     if flag(fast)
         ghc-options:
-            -funfolding-creation-threshold=10000 -funfolding-use-threshold=2500
+            -funfolding-creation-threshold=10000
+            -funfolding-use-threshold=2500
 
 test-suite test-fast-tags
     type: exitcode-stdio-1.0
@@ -80,5 +85,6 @@
         base >= 3 && < 5, containers, filepath, directory,
         -- text 0.11.1.12 has a bug.
         text (> 0.11.1.12 || < 0.11.1.12),
+        bytestring,
         tasty, tasty-hunit,
         fast-tags
diff --git a/src/FastTags.hs b/src/FastTags.hs
--- a/src/FastTags.hs
+++ b/src/FastTags.hs
@@ -32,29 +32,27 @@
     , split
     )
 where
-
 import Control.Arrow ((***), (&&&))
-import Control.Monad
 import Control.DeepSeq (NFData, rnf)
+import Control.Monad
+
+import qualified Data.ByteString as ByteString
+import qualified Data.Char as Char
 import Data.Function (on)
 import Data.Functor ((<$>))
+import qualified Data.IntSet as IntSet
+import qualified Data.List as List
+import qualified Data.Map as Map
 import Data.Monoid (Monoid, (<>), mconcat)
+import qualified Data.Text as T
 import Data.Text (Text)
-import qualified System.Exit as Exit
+import qualified Data.Text.Encoding as Encoding
+import qualified Data.Text.Encoding.Error as Encoding.Error
 
 import qualified Language.Preprocessor.Unlit as Unlit
 import Text.Printf (printf)
 
-import qualified Control.Exception as Exception
-import qualified Data.Char as Char
-import qualified Data.IntSet as IntSet
-import qualified Data.List as L
-import qualified Data.Map as M
-import qualified Data.Text as T
-import qualified Data.Text.IO as T
-import qualified System.IO as IO
 
-
 -- * types
 
 data TagVal = TagVal
@@ -94,7 +92,7 @@
 
 tokenName :: TokenVal -> Text
 tokenName (Token _ name) = name
-tokenName _              = error "cannot extract name from non-Token TokenVal"
+tokenName _ = error "cannot extract name from non-Token TokenVal"
 
 data Tag =
     Tag !(Pos TagVal)
@@ -193,7 +191,7 @@
 -- Mostly this is so that given a type with the same name as its module,
 -- the type will come first.
 sortDups :: [Pos TagVal] -> [Pos TagVal]
-sortDups = concatMap (sortOn tagType) .  M.elems . M.fromAscListWith (++)
+sortDups = concatMap (sortOn tagType) .  Map.elems . Map.fromAscListWith (++)
     . map (fst . tagSortingKey &&& (:[]))
 
 tagText :: Pos TagVal -> Text
@@ -206,18 +204,16 @@
 tagLine (Pos (SrcPos _ line) _) = line
 
 -- | Read tags from one file.
-processFile :: Bool -> FilePath -> Bool -> IO ([Pos TagVal], [String])
-processFile ignoreEncodingErrors fn trackPrefixes =
-    fmap (process fn trackPrefixes) (T.readFile fn)
-    `Exception.catch` \(exc :: Exception.SomeException) -> do
-        -- readFile will crash on files that are not UTF8.  Unfortunately not
-        -- all haskell source file are.
-        IO.hPutStrLn IO.stderr $
-            "exception reading " ++ show fn ++ ": " ++ show exc
-        unless ignoreEncodingErrors $
-            void $ Exit.exitFailure
-        return ([], [])
+processFile :: FilePath -> Bool -> IO ([Pos TagVal], [String])
+processFile fn trackPrefixes =
+    process fn trackPrefixes <$> readFileLenient fn
 
+-- | Read a UTF8 file, but don't crash on encoding errors.
+readFileLenient :: FilePath -> IO Text
+readFileLenient fname = do
+    bytes <- ByteString.readFile fname
+    return $ Encoding.decodeUtf8With Encoding.Error.lenientDecode bytes
+
 tagSortingKey :: Pos TagVal -> (Text, Type)
 tagSortingKey (Pos _ (TagVal _ name t)) = (name, t)
 
@@ -235,7 +231,7 @@
         where
         (newTags, repeatableTags, warnings) = partitionTags tags
         earliestRepeats :: [Pos TagVal]
-        earliestRepeats = M.elems $ M.fromListWith minLine $
+        earliestRepeats = Map.elems $ Map.fromListWith minLine $
             map (tagSortingKey &&& id) repeatableTags
         minLine x y
             | tagLine x < tagLine y = x
@@ -246,7 +242,8 @@
         | otherwise = s
         where
         s' :: Text
-        s'  | "\\begin{code}" `T.isInfixOf` s && "\\end{code}" `T.isInfixOf` s =
+        s'  | "\\begin{code}" `T.isInfixOf` s
+                    && "\\end{code}" `T.isInfixOf` s =
                 T.unlines $ filter (not . birdLiterateLine) $ T.lines s
             | otherwise = s
         birdLiterateLine :: Text -> Bool
@@ -268,7 +265,7 @@
 
 tokenize :: Bool -> Line -> UnstrippedTokens
 tokenize trackPrefixes (Pos pos line) =
-  UnstrippedTokens $ map (Pos pos) (tokenizeLine trackPrefixes line)
+    UnstrippedTokens $ map (Pos pos) (tokenizeLine trackPrefixes line)
 
 spanToken :: Text -> (Text, Text)
 spanToken text
@@ -318,8 +315,8 @@
 startIdentChar c = Char.isAlpha c || c == '_'
 
 identChar :: Bool -> Char -> Bool
-identChar considerDot c = Char.isAlphaNum c || c == '\'' || c == '_' || c == '#'
-    || considerDot && c == '.'
+identChar considerDot c = Char.isAlphaNum c || c == '\'' || c == '_'
+    || c == '#' || considerDot && c == '.'
 
 -- unicode operators are not supported yet
 haskellOpChar :: Char -> Bool
@@ -893,7 +890,7 @@
 dropUntil token = drop 1 . dropWhile (not . (`hasName` token) . valOf)
 
 sortOn :: (Ord k) => (a -> k) -> [a] -> [a]
-sortOn key = L.sortBy (compare `on` key)
+sortOn key = List.sortBy (compare `on` key)
 
 -- | Split list into chunks delimited by specified element.
 split :: (Eq a) => a -> [a] -> [[a]]
@@ -903,11 +900,11 @@
 
 -- | Crude predicate for Haskell files
 isHsFile :: FilePath -> Bool
-isHsFile fn =
-  ".hs" `L.isSuffixOf` fn  || ".hsc" `L.isSuffixOf` fn || isLiterateFile fn
+isHsFile fn = ".hs" `List.isSuffixOf` fn  || ".hsc" `List.isSuffixOf` fn
+    || isLiterateFile fn
 
 isLiterateFile :: FilePath -> Bool
-isLiterateFile fn = ".lhs" `L.isSuffixOf` fn
+isLiterateFile fn = ".lhs" `List.isSuffixOf` fn
 
 merge :: Ord a => [a] -> [a] -> [a]
 merge = mergeBy compare
diff --git a/src/Main.hs b/src/Main.hs
--- a/src/Main.hs
+++ b/src/Main.hs
@@ -52,7 +52,6 @@
         output        = last $ defaultOutput : [fn | Output fn <- flags]
         noMerge       = NoMerge `elem` flags
         useZeroSep    = ZeroSep `elem` flags
-        ignoreEncErrs = IgnoreEncodingErrors `elem` flags
         sep           = if useZeroSep then '\0' else '\n'
         defaultOutput = if vim then "tags" else "TAGS"
         inputsM       = if null inputs
@@ -84,7 +83,7 @@
     -- TODO try it and see if it really hurts performance that much.
     newTags <- fmap processAll $
         forM (zip [0..] inputs) $ \(i :: Int, fn) -> do
-            (newTags, warnings) <- processFile ignoreEncErrs fn trackPrefixes
+            (newTags, warnings) <- processFile fn trackPrefixes
             forM_ warnings printErr
             when verbose $ do
                 let line = take 78 $ show i ++ ": " ++ fn
@@ -174,7 +173,6 @@
     | Recurse
     | NoMerge
     | ZeroSep
-    | IgnoreEncodingErrors
     deriving (Eq, Show)
 
 help :: String
@@ -195,11 +193,9 @@
     , Option ['R'] [] (NoArg Recurse)
         "read all files under any specified directories recursively"
     , Option ['0'] [] (NoArg ZeroSep)
-        "expect list of file names in stdin to be 0-separated."
+        "expect list of file names on stdin to be 0-separated."
     , Option [] ["nomerge"] (NoArg NoMerge)
         "do not merge tag files"
-    , Option [] ["ignore-encoding-errors"] (NoArg IgnoreEncodingErrors)
-        "do exit on utf8 encoding error and continue processing other files"
     ]
 
 -- | Documented in vim :h tags-file-format.