diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 7107f6b1..e8c2850e 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 # coding=utf-8
 from setuptools import setup, find_packages
+from codecs import open
 
 setup(
     name="tinydb",
@@ -33,5 +34,5 @@
         "Operating System :: OS Independent"
     ],
 
-    long_description=open('README.rst', 'r').read(),
+    long_description=open('README.rst', encoding='utf-8').read(),
 )