diff --git a/CHANGES.md b/CHANGES.md
index 0e42295b..6b3d1361 100644
--- a/CHANGES.md
+++ b/CHANGES.md
@@ -2,6 +2,10 @@
 
 ## X.Y.Z (YYYY-MM-DD)
 
+## 0.8.1 (2021-10-26)
+
+- FIX: Do not force `chunk` in `utils.read` if dask is not installed
+
 ## 0.8.0 (2021-10-25)
 
 - **BREAKING CHANGE: `crs`, `footprint`, `extent`, `wgs84_extent` are now properties !**
diff --git a/eoreader/__init__.py b/eoreader/__init__.py
index 2136f689..976cc126 100644
--- a/eoreader/__init__.py
+++ b/eoreader/__init__.py
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ def wrapper(*args, **kwargs):
         return wrapper
 
 
-__version__ = "0.8.0"
+__version__ = "0.8.1"
 __title__ = "eoreader"
 __description__ = (
     "Remote-sensing opensource python library reading optical and SAR sensors, "
diff --git a/eoreader/utils.py b/eoreader/utils.py
index b2544ae5..430e867d 100644
--- a/eoreader/utils.py
+++ b/eoreader/utils.py
@@ -147,6 +147,11 @@ def read(
         Union[XDS_TYPE]: Masked xarray corresponding to the raster data and its meta data
 
     """
+    if use_dask():
+        chunks = True
+    else:
+        chunks = None
+
     return rasters.read(
         path,
         resolution=resolution,
@@ -154,7 +159,7 @@ def read(
         resampling=resampling,
         masked=masked,
         indexes=indexes,
-        chunks=True,
+        chunks=chunks,
         **kwargs,
     )