diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index db5b6b9..0e49d83 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -16,29 +16,29 @@ this file (which is manually maintained) is in error.
 
 ### Leiningen/Boot
 
-[csv2edn "0.1.5"]
+[csv2edn "0.1.6"]
 
 ### Clojure CLI/deps.edn
 
-csv2edn {:mvn/version "0.1.5"}
+csv2edn {:mvn/version "0.1.6"}
 
 ### Gradle
 
-compile 'csv2edn:csv2edn:0.1.5'
+compile 'csv2edn:csv2edn:0.1.6'
 
 ### Maven
 
 <dependency>
   <groupId>csv2edn</groupId>
   <artifactId>csv2edn</artifactId>
-  <version>0.1.5</version>
+  <version>0.1.6</version>
 </dependency>
 
 ## Usage: as a standalone commandline tool
 
 To run from the command line:
 
-    $ java -jar csv2edn-0.1.5-standalone.jar [options]
+    $ java -jar csv2edn-0.1.6-standalone.jar [options]
 
 ### Options
 
@@ -59,17 +59,17 @@ Where options are:
 The simplest possible use is to simply use this in a pipeline:
 
     $ cat path/to/file.csv |\
-        java -jar csv2edn-0.1.5-standalone.jar > path/to/file.edn
+        java -jar csv2edn-0.1.6-standalone.jar > path/to/file.edn
 
 Exactly the same behaviour can be achieved by specifying input and output
 paths:
 
-    $ java -jar csv2edn-0.1.5-standalone.jar \
+    $ java -jar csv2edn-0.1.6-standalone.jar \
         -i path/to/file.csv -o path/to/file.edn
 
 or
 
-    $ java -jar csv2edn-0.1.5-standalone.jar \
+    $ java -jar csv2edn-0.1.6-standalone.jar \
         --input path/to/file.csv --output path/to/file.edn
 
 ## Usage: as a library
diff --git a/project.clj b/project.clj
index 02b20de..6fd7df0 100644
--- a/project.clj
+++ b/project.clj
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-(defproject csv2edn "0.1.5"
+(defproject csv2edn "0.1.6"
   :description "Simple command line utility to convert CSV files to EDN."
   :url "https://github.com/simon-brooke/csv2edn"
   :license {:name "GPL-2.0-or-later WITH Classpath-exception-2.0"
diff --git a/src/csv2edn/csv2edn.clj b/src/csv2edn/csv2edn.clj
index eb6f682..96db0cd 100644
--- a/src/csv2edn/csv2edn.clj
+++ b/src/csv2edn/csv2edn.clj
@@ -14,9 +14,16 @@
 (defn maybe-read
   "If a string represents an integer or real, we'd really like to have that
   integer or real in our data rather than a string representation of it."
+  ;; TODO: this is actually quite difficult and the current solution won't
+  ;; correctly handle numbers in scientific notation, ratios, or imaginary
+  ;; numbers.
   [^String s]
   (try
-    (read-string s)
+    (if
+      (re-matches #"^ *[+-]?[0-9]*\.?[0-9]*" s)
+      (let [v (read-string s)]
+        (if (number? v) v s))
+      s)
     (catch Exception _ s)))
 
 (defn csv->edn