diff --git a/source/durandal/bin.rs b/source/durandal/bin.rs
index 2854015..ed2fa7a 100644
--- a/source/durandal/bin.rs
+++ b/source/durandal/bin.rs
@@ -131,7 +131,8 @@ macro_rules! _durandal_read_impl {
 ///
 /// # Panics
 ///
-/// This macro will not panic unless any index expression used exceeds `size`.
+/// This macro will not panic unless any index expression used exceeds or
+/// equals `size`.
 ///
 /// # Examples
 ///
diff --git a/source/durandal/bit.rs b/source/durandal/bit.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..327db69
--- /dev/null
+++ b/source/durandal/bit.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,110 @@
+//! Bit streams.
+
+use crate::durandal::err::*;
+
+/// Reads `width` bits from `b` starting at bit `cr_ptr` into an integer.
+///
+/// # Errors
+///
+/// The function will return an error if `width` is 0 or more than 64, or if
+/// `(cr_ptr + width - 1) / 8` would overflow an index into `b`.
+pub fn read_bits(b: &[u8], cr_ptr: usize, width: u8) -> ResultS<(usize, u64)>
+{
+   if width < 1 || width > 64 {
+      bail!("invalid number of bits");
+   }
+
+   let nx_ptr = cr_ptr + usize::from(width);
+   let ed_ptr = nx_ptr - 1;
+
+   let first_byte = cr_ptr / 8;
+   let last_byte  = ed_ptr / 8;
+
+   if b.len() <= last_byte {
+      bail!("not enough data");
+   }
+
+   let first_bits = cr_ptr as u32 % 8;
+   let last_bits  = nx_ptr as u32 % 8;
+
+   let last_mask = ((1u128 << last_bits) - 1) as u64;
+
+   let num_bytes = last_byte - first_byte;
+
+   let bytes = get_bytes(b, num_bytes, first_byte);
+
+   let bits = u64::from_be_bytes(bytes);
+   let bits = bits.wrapping_shl(first_bits);
+   let bits = bits >> (64 - width);
+
+   // special case for over byte boundary
+   let bits = if num_bytes == 8 {
+      let lbyt = u64::from(b[last_byte]);
+      let lbyt = lbyt >> (8 - last_bits);
+      let lbyt = lbyt & last_mask;
+
+      (bits & !last_mask) | lbyt
+   } else {
+      bits
+   };
+
+   Ok((nx_ptr, bits))
+}
+
+fn get_bytes(b: &[u8], num_bytes: usize, f: usize) -> [u8; 8]
+{
+   match num_bytes {
+      8 |
+      7 => [b[f], b[f+1], b[f+2], b[f+3], b[f+4], b[f+5], b[f+6], b[f+7]],
+      6 => [b[f], b[f+1], b[f+2], b[f+3], b[f+4], b[f+5], b[f+6],      0],
+      5 => [b[f], b[f+1], b[f+2], b[f+3], b[f+4], b[f+5],           0, 0],
+      4 => [b[f], b[f+1], b[f+2], b[f+3], b[f+4],                0, 0, 0],
+      3 => [b[f], b[f+1], b[f+2], b[f+3],                     0, 0, 0, 0],
+      2 => [b[f], b[f+1], b[f+2],                          0, 0, 0, 0, 0],
+      1 => [b[f], b[f+1],                               0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0],
+      0 => [b[f],                                    0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0],
+      _ => panic!("invalid number of bytes to read ({})", num_bytes),
+   }
+}
+
+#[test]
+fn bit_tests()
+{
+   const INPUT: &[u8] = &[0b011_00101, 0b10101010, 0b00010000, 0b00000000,
+                          0b11111111, 0b11100001, 0b10101100, 0b00110011,
+                          0b10_1001_01, 0b11100_000, 0b00000111, 0b000000_01,
+                          0b11001010, 0b10101111, 0b00101011, 0b0_1101010,
+                          0b11010101, 0b10100011, 0b01010101, 0b11_000001];
+
+   let (p, n) = read_bits(INPUT, 0, 3).unwrap();
+   assert_eq!(n, 0b011);
+
+   let (p, n) = read_bits(INPUT, p, 63).unwrap();
+   assert_eq!(n, 0x16A8_4003_FF86_B0CE);
+
+   let (p, n) = read_bits(INPUT, p, 4).unwrap();
+   assert_eq!(n, 0b1001);
+
+   let (p, n) = read_bits(INPUT, p, 7).unwrap();
+   assert_eq!(n, 0b0111100);
+
+   let (p, n) = read_bits(INPUT, p, 17).unwrap();
+   assert_eq!(n, 0b00000000111000000);
+
+   let (p, n) = read_bits(INPUT, p, 27).unwrap();
+   assert_eq!(n, 0b011100101010101111001010110);
+
+   let (p, n) = read_bits(INPUT, p, 33).unwrap();
+   assert_eq!(n, 0b110101011010101101000110101010111);
+
+   let (p, n) = read_bits(INPUT, p, 6).unwrap();
+   assert_eq!(n, 1);
+
+   let e = read_bits(INPUT, p, 1);
+   assert!(if let Err(_) = e {true} else {false});
+
+   let e = read_bits(INPUT, p, 2);
+   assert!(if let Err(_) = e {true} else {false});
+}
+
+// EOF
diff --git a/source/durandal/mod.rs b/source/durandal/mod.rs
index 0848bf3..697ebff 100644
--- a/source/durandal/mod.rs
+++ b/source/durandal/mod.rs
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ pub mod cenum;
 #[macro_use]
 pub mod bin;
 
+pub mod bit;
 pub mod crc;
 pub mod file;
 pub mod fixed;