diff --git a/src/gmenu2x.cpp b/src/gmenu2x.cpp
index 08ff48e..232b136 100644
--- a/src/gmenu2x.cpp
+++ b/src/gmenu2x.cpp
@@ -409,45 +409,27 @@ void GMenu2X::initMenu() {
 }
 
 void GMenu2X::about() {
-	string str, line;
-	string fn(GMENU2X_SYSTEM_DIR);
-	string build_date("Build date: ");
-	fn.append("/about.txt");
-	build_date.append(__DATE__);
-
-	ifstream inf(fn.c_str(), ios_base::in);
-
-	while(getline(inf, line, '\n')) {
-		str.append(line).append("\n");
-	}
-	inf.close();
-
-	TextDialog td(this, "GMenu2X", build_date, "icons/about.png", str);
+	string text(readFileAsString(GMENU2X_SYSTEM_DIR "/about.txt"));
+	string build_date("Build date: " __DATE__);
+	TextDialog td(this, "GMenu2X", build_date, "icons/about.png", text);
 	td.exec();
 }
 
 void GMenu2X::viewLog() {
-	string logfile = LOG_FILE;
-	if (fileExists(logfile)) {
-		ifstream inf(logfile.c_str(), ios_base::in);
-		if (inf.is_open()) {
-			string str, line;
-			while (getline(inf, line, '\n')) {
-				str.append(line).append("\n");
-			}
-			inf.close();
+	string text(readFileAsString(LOG_FILE));
 
-			TextDialog td(this, tr["Log Viewer"], tr["Displays last launched program's output"], "icons/ebook.png", str);
-			td.exec();
+	TextDialog td(this, tr["Log Viewer"],
+			tr["Displays last launched program's output"],
+			"icons/ebook.png", text);
+	td.exec();
 
-			MessageBox mb(this, tr["Do you want to delete the log file?"], "icons/ebook.png");
-			mb.setButton(InputManager::ACCEPT, tr["Yes"]);
-			mb.setButton(InputManager::CANCEL, tr["No"]);
-			if (mb.exec() == InputManager::ACCEPT) {
-				unlink(logfile.c_str());
-				menu->deleteSelectedLink();
-			}
-		}
+	MessageBox mb(this, tr["Do you want to delete the log file?"],
+			 "icons/ebook.png");
+	mb.setButton(InputManager::ACCEPT, tr["Yes"]);
+	mb.setButton(InputManager::CANCEL, tr["No"]);
+	if (mb.exec() == InputManager::ACCEPT) {
+		unlink(LOG_FILE);
+		menu->deleteSelectedLink();
 	}
 }
 
diff --git a/src/linkapp.cpp b/src/linkapp.cpp
index 3ab9aae..a8baa6a 100644
--- a/src/linkapp.cpp
+++ b/src/linkapp.cpp
@@ -491,18 +491,9 @@ void LinkApp::showManual() {
 
 	// Txt manuals
 	if (manual.substr(manual.size()-8,8)==".man.txt") {
-		string str, line;
-		ifstream infile(manual.c_str(), ios_base::in);
-		if (infile.is_open()) {
-			while (getline(infile, line, '\n')) {
-				str.append(line).append("\n");
-			}
-			infile.close();
-
-			TextManualDialog tmd(gmenu2x, getTitle(), getIconPath(), str);
-			tmd.exec();
-		}
-
+		string text(readFileAsString(manual.c_str()));
+		TextManualDialog tmd(gmenu2x, getTitle(), getIconPath(), text);
+		tmd.exec();
 		return;
 	}
 
diff --git a/src/utilities.cpp b/src/utilities.cpp
index c85fff0..4ff4075 100644
--- a/src/utilities.cpp
+++ b/src/utilities.cpp
@@ -56,6 +56,31 @@ string rtrim(const string& s) {
   return e == string::npos ? "" : string(s, 0, e + 1);
 }
 
+// See this article for a performance comparison of different approaches:
+//   http://insanecoding.blogspot.com/2011/11/how-to-read-in-file-in-c.html
+string readFileAsString(const char *filename) {
+	ifstream in(filename, ios::in | ios::binary);
+	if (!in) {
+		return "<error opening " + string(filename) + ">";
+	}
+
+	// Get file size.
+	in.seekg(0, ios::end);
+	auto size = max(int(in.tellg()), 0); // tellg() returns -1 on errors
+	in.seekg(0, ios::beg);
+
+	string contents(size, '\0');
+	in.read(&contents[0], contents.size());
+	in.close();
+
+	if (in.fail()) {
+		return "<error reading " + string(filename) + ">";
+	} else {
+		contents.shrink_to_fit();
+		return contents;
+	}
+}
+
 bool fileExists(const string &file) {
 	fstream fin;
 	fin.open(file.c_str() ,ios::in);
diff --git a/src/utilities.h b/src/utilities.h
index aa29308..d9f235d 100644
--- a/src/utilities.h
+++ b/src/utilities.h
@@ -46,6 +46,9 @@ std::string ltrim(const std::string& s);
 /** Returns the string with whitespace stripped from the end. */
 std::string rtrim(const std::string& s);
 
+/** Returns the contents of the given file as a string. */
+std::string readFileAsString(const char *filename);
+
 std::string strreplace(std::string orig, const std::string &search, const std::string &replace);
 std::string cmdclean(std::string cmdline);