diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/rb/reader.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/rb/reader.py
index da5330c7f1..0d111107fa 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/rb/reader.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/rb/reader.py
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ class Reader(object):
 
         toc = RBToc()
         for i in range(pages):
-            name = unquote(self.stream.read(32).strip('\x00'))
+            name = unquote(self.stream.read(32).strip(b'\x00'))
             size, offset, flags = self.read_i32(), self.read_i32(), self.read_i32()
             toc.append(RBToc.Item(name=name, size=size, offset=offset, flags=flags))
 
@@ -90,7 +90,7 @@ class Reader(object):
         else:
             output += self.stream.read(toc_item.size).decode('cp1252' if self.encoding is None else self.encoding, 'replace')
 
-        with open(os.path.join(output_dir, toc_item.name), 'wb') as html:
+        with open(os.path.join(output_dir, toc_item.name.decode('utf-8')), 'wb') as html:
             html.write(output.replace('<TITLE>', '<TITLE> ').encode('utf-8'))
 
     def get_image(self, toc_item, output_dir):
@@ -100,7 +100,7 @@ class Reader(object):
         self.stream.seek(toc_item.offset)
         data = self.stream.read(toc_item.size)
 
-        with open(os.path.join(output_dir, toc_item.name), 'wb') as img:
+        with open(os.path.join(output_dir, toc_item.name.decode('utf-8')), 'wb') as img:
             img.write(data)
 
     def extract_content(self, output_dir):
@@ -109,13 +109,14 @@ class Reader(object):
         images = []
 
         for item in self.toc:
-            if item.name.lower().endswith('html'):
-                self.log.debug('HTML item %s found...' % item.name)
-                html.append(item.name)
+            iname = item.name.decode('utf-8')
+            if iname.lower().endswith('html'):
+                self.log.debug('HTML item %s found...' % iname)
+                html.append(iname)
                 self.get_text(item, output_dir)
-            if item.name.lower().endswith('png'):
-                self.log.debug('PNG item %s found...' % item.name)
-                images.append(item.name)
+            if iname.lower().endswith('png'):
+                self.log.debug('PNG item %s found...' % iname)
+                images.append(iname)
                 self.get_image(item, output_dir)
 
         opf_path = self.create_opf(output_dir, html, images)