diff --git a/src/main/java/io/usethesource/vallang/IString.java b/src/main/java/io/usethesource/vallang/IString.java
index cee3ef89..10dc4744 100644
--- a/src/main/java/io/usethesource/vallang/IString.java
+++ b/src/main/java/io/usethesource/vallang/IString.java
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
 package io.usethesource.vallang;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.Reader;
 import java.io.Writer;
 import java.util.PrimitiveIterator.OfInt;
 
@@ -99,6 +100,13 @@ default int getMatchFingerprint() {
      */
     public void write(Writer w) throws IOException;
 
+    /**
+     * Generates a reader that can be used to stream the contents of the string
+     * Note, this will generate java characters, users are responsible for dealing with surrogate-pairs.
+     * See {@link #iterator()} for a more unicode compatible approach to iterate over the characters of an IString.
+     */
+    public Reader asReader();
+
     /**
      * Build an iterator which generates the Unicode UTF-32 codepoints of the IString one-by-one.
      * @see Character for more information on Unicode UTF-32 codepoints.
diff --git a/src/main/java/io/usethesource/vallang/impl/primitive/StringValue.java b/src/main/java/io/usethesource/vallang/impl/primitive/StringValue.java
index 942cad30..4f3f4ec4 100644
--- a/src/main/java/io/usethesource/vallang/impl/primitive/StringValue.java
+++ b/src/main/java/io/usethesource/vallang/impl/primitive/StringValue.java
@@ -16,6 +16,8 @@
 package io.usethesource.vallang.impl.primitive;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.Reader;
+import java.io.StringReader;
 import java.io.StringWriter;
 import java.io.Writer;
 import java.lang.management.ManagementFactory;
@@ -279,6 +281,11 @@ public boolean isNewlineTerminated() {
         public IString concat(IString other) {
             return other;
         }
+
+        @Override
+        public Reader asReader() {
+            return Reader.nullReader();
+        }
     }
 
     private static class FullUnicodeString extends AbstractString {
@@ -501,6 +508,11 @@ public void write(Writer w) throws IOException {
             w.write(value);
         }
 
+        @Override
+        public Reader asReader() {
+            return new StringReader(value);
+        }
+
         @Override
         public void indentedWrite(Writer w, Deque<IString> whitespace, boolean indentFirstLine) throws IOException {
             if (value.isEmpty()) {
@@ -633,6 +645,11 @@ public int nextInt() {
                 }
             };
         }
+
+        @Override
+        public Reader asReader() {
+            return new StringReader(value);
+        }
     }
 
     /**
@@ -1146,6 +1163,47 @@ public void write(Writer w) throws IOException {
             right.write(w);
         }
 
+        @Override
+        public Reader asReader() {
+            return new Reader() {
+                private Reader currentReader = left.asReader();
+                private boolean readingRight = false;
+
+                private void continueRight() throws IOException {
+                    assert !readingRight;
+                    currentReader.close();
+                    currentReader = right.asReader();
+                    readingRight = true;
+                }
+
+
+                @Override
+                public int read(char[] cbuf, int off, int len) throws IOException {
+                    int result = currentReader.read(cbuf, off, len);
+                    if (result == -1 && !readingRight) {
+                        continueRight();
+                        return read(cbuf, off, len);
+                    }
+                    return result;
+                }
+
+                @Override
+                public int read() throws IOException {
+                    int result = currentReader.read();
+                    if (result == -1 && !readingRight) {
+                        continueRight();
+                        return read();
+                    }
+                    return result;
+                }
+
+                @Override
+                public void close() throws IOException {
+                    currentReader.close();
+                }
+            };
+        }
+
         @Override
         public void indentedWrite(Writer w, Deque<IString> whitespace, boolean indentFirstLine) throws IOException {
             left.indentedWrite(w, whitespace, indentFirstLine);
@@ -1380,6 +1438,72 @@ public void write(Writer w) throws IOException {
             assert indents.isEmpty();
         }
 
+        @Override
+        public Reader asReader() {
+            return new Reader() {
+                private final OfInt chars = iterator();
+                private char endedWithHalfSurrogate = 0;
+
+                @Override
+                public int read(char[] cbuf, int off, int len) throws IOException {
+                    if (off < 0 || len < 0 || len > (cbuf.length - off)) {
+                        throw new IndexOutOfBoundsException();
+                    }
+                    if (len == 0) {
+                        return 0;
+                    }
+
+                    int pos = off;
+                    if (endedWithHalfSurrogate != 0) {
+                        cbuf[pos++] = endedWithHalfSurrogate;
+                        endedWithHalfSurrogate = 0;
+                    }
+                    int endPos = off + len;
+                    while (pos <= endPos) {
+                        if (!chars.hasNext()) {
+                            break;
+                        }
+                        int nextChar = chars.nextInt();
+                        if (Character.isBmpCodePoint(nextChar)) {
+                            cbuf[pos++] = (char)nextChar;
+                        } else {
+                            cbuf[pos++] = Character.highSurrogate(nextChar);
+                            char lowSide = Character.lowSurrogate(nextChar);
+                            if (pos <= endPos) {
+                                cbuf[pos++] = lowSide;
+                            } else {
+                                endedWithHalfSurrogate = lowSide;
+                            }
+                        }
+                    }
+                    int written = pos - off;
+                    return written == 0 ? /* EOF */ -1 : written;
+                }
+
+                @Override
+                public int read() throws IOException {
+                    if (endedWithHalfSurrogate != 0) {
+                        int result = endedWithHalfSurrogate;
+                        endedWithHalfSurrogate = 0;
+                        return result;
+                    }
+                    if (chars.hasNext()) {
+                        int nextChar = chars.nextInt();
+                        if (Character.isBmpCodePoint(nextChar)) {
+                            return nextChar;
+                        } else {
+                            endedWithHalfSurrogate = Character.lowSurrogate(nextChar);
+                            return Character.highSurrogate(nextChar);
+                        }
+                    }
+                    return -1;
+                }
+                @Override
+                public void close() throws IOException {
+                }
+            };
+        }
+
         @Override
         public void indentedWrite(Writer w, Deque<IString> whitespace, boolean indentFirstLine) throws IOException {
             if (flattened != null) {