diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/pdb/ereader/reader.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/pdb/ereader/reader.py
index f6bbc3d23f..b696005e85 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/pdb/ereader/reader.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/pdb/ereader/reader.py
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ import os, sys, struct, zlib
 from calibre import CurrentDir
 from calibre.ebooks import DRMError
 from calibre.ebooks.metadata import MetaInformation
+from calibre.ebooks.pdb.formatreader import FormatReader
 from calibre.ebooks.pdb.ereader import EreaderError
 from calibre.ebooks.pdb.ereader.pmlconverter import pml_to_html, \
     footnote_to_html, sidebar_to_html 
@@ -51,10 +52,11 @@ class HeaderRecord(object):
         self.num_sidebar_pages = self.sidebar_offset - self.last_data_offset if self.footnote_offset < self.last_data_offset else 0
         
 
-class Reader(object):
+class Reader(FormatReader):
 
-    def __init__(self, header, stream, log):
+    def __init__(self, header, stream, log, encoding=None):
         self.log = log
+        self.encoding = encoding
     
         self.sections = []
         for i in range(header.num_sections):
@@ -73,9 +75,9 @@ class Reader(object):
         
     def decompress_text(self, number):
         if self.header_record.version == 2:
-            return decompress_doc(self.section_data(number)).decode('cp1252')
+            return decompress_doc(self.section_data(number)).decode('cp1252' if self.encoding is None else self.encoding)
         if self.header_record.version == 10:
-            return zlib.decompress(self.section_data(number)).decode('cp1252')
+            return zlib.decompress(self.section_data(number)).decode('cp1252' if self.encoding is None else self.encoding)
 
         
     def get_image(self, number):
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/pdb/formatreader.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/pdb/formatreader.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..25abb462cf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/pdb/formatreader.py
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+from __future__ import with_statement
+'''
+Interface defining the necessary public functions for a pdb format reader.
+'''
+
+__license__   = 'GPL v3'
+__copyright__ = '2009, John Schember <john@nachtimwald.com>'
+__docformat__ = 'restructuredtext en'
+
+
+class FormatReader(object):
+
+    def __init__(self, header, stream, log, encoding=None):
+        raise NotImplementedError()
+        
+    def extract_content(self, output_dir):
+        raise NotImplementedError()
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/pdb/input.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/pdb/input.py
index d64e2aa51b..9d848b1c24 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/pdb/input.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/pdb/input.py
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ class PDBInput(InputFormatPlugin):
 
         log.debug('Detected ebook format as: %s with identity: %s' % (IDENTITY_TO_NAME[header.ident], header.ident))
             
-        reader = Reader(header, stream, log)
+        reader = Reader(header, stream, log, options.input_encoding)
         opf = reader.extract_content(os.getcwd())
         
         return opf