diff --git a/src/node_shell_read.js b/src/node_shell_read.js
index 6a1c07872a546..ab4464fc6d136 100644
--- a/src/node_shell_read.js
+++ b/src/node_shell_read.js
@@ -2,16 +2,14 @@
     var ret;
 #if SUPPORT_BASE64_EMBEDDING
     ret = tryParseAsDataURI(filename);
-    if (!ret) {
-#endif
-      if (!nodeFS) nodeFS = require('fs');
-      if (!nodePath) nodePath = require('path');
-      filename = nodePath['normalize'](filename);
-      ret = nodeFS['readFileSync'](filename);
-#if SUPPORT_BASE64_EMBEDDING
+    if (ret) {
+      return binary ? ret : ret.toString();
     }
 #endif
-    return binary ? ret : ret.toString();
+    if (!nodeFS) nodeFS = require('fs');
+    if (!nodePath) nodePath = require('path');
+    filename = nodePath['normalize'](filename);
+    return nodeFS['readFileSync'](filename, binary ? null : 'utf8');
   };
 
   readBinary = function readBinary(filename) {
diff --git a/src/worker.js b/src/worker.js
index 48f6f0a55437a..13aba844d5a3d 100644
--- a/src/worker.js
+++ b/src/worker.js
@@ -290,7 +290,7 @@ if (typeof process === 'object' && typeof process.versions === 'object' && typeo
   var nodeFS = require('fs');
 
   var nodeRead = function(filename) {
-    return nodeFS.readFileSync(filename).toString();
+    return nodeFS.readFileSync(filename, 'utf8');
   };
 
   function globalEval(x) {