diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index c8eb884..b451136 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 Current [semantic](http://semver.org/) version:
 
 ```clojure
-[com.taoensso/nippy "1.0.0"]
+[com.taoensso/nippy "1.0.1-SNAPSHOT"]
 ```
 
 # Nippy, a Clojure serialization library
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ Nippy is an attempt to provide a drop-in, high-performance alternative to the re
 Depend on Nippy in your `project.clj`:
 
 ```clojure
-[com.taoensso/nippy "1.0.0"]
+[com.taoensso/nippy "1.0.1-SNAPSHOT"]
 ```
 
 and `require` the library:
diff --git a/benchmarks/benchmarks.clj b/benchmarks/benchmarks.clj
index e97de81..4f56786 100644
--- a/benchmarks/benchmarks.clj
+++ b/benchmarks/benchmarks.clj
@@ -34,6 +34,11 @@
   ;;  :nippy  {:freeze 3751,  :thaw 4184,  :round 7769}}
   ;; (float (/ 59545 7769)) = 7.6644354
 
+  ;; Clojure 1.4.0, Nippy 1.0.0
+  ;; {:reader {:freeze 22595, :thaw 31148, :round 54059}
+  ;;  :nippy  {:freeze 3324,  :thaw 3725,  :round 6918}}
+  ;; (float (/ 54059 6918)) = 7.814253
+
   ;;; Data size
   (let [frozen (reader-freeze data)]   (count (.getBytes frozen "UTF8")))
   (let [frozen (freeze-to-bytes data)] (count frozen))
diff --git a/project.clj b/project.clj
index f017dc7..94218d8 100644
--- a/project.clj
+++ b/project.clj
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-(defproject com.taoensso/nippy "1.0.0"
+(defproject com.taoensso/nippy "1.0.1-SNAPSHOT"
   :description "Clojure serialization library"
   :url "https://github.com/ptaoussanis/nippy"
   :license {:name "Eclipse Public License"}
@@ -11,4 +11,4 @@
              :test {:dependencies []}}
   :aliases {"test-all" ["with-profile" "test,1.3:test,1.4:test,1.5" "test"]}
   :min-lein-version "2.0.0"
-  :warn-on-reflection true)
\ No newline at end of file
+  :warn-on-reflection true)
diff --git a/src/taoensso/nippy.clj b/src/taoensso/nippy.clj
index 0eb8706..78b8ed6 100644
--- a/src/taoensso/nippy.clj
+++ b/src/taoensso/nippy.clj
@@ -175,6 +175,12 @@
   [^DataInputStream s]
   (repeatedly (.readInt s) (partial thaw-from-stream!* s)))
 
+(defn coll-thaw-pairs!
+  "Helper to thaw pair-based collection types (e.g. hash maps)."
+  [^DataInputStream s]
+  (repeatedly (/ (.readInt s) 2)
+              (fn [] [(thaw-from-stream!* s) (thaw-from-stream!* s)])))
+
 (defn- thaw-from-stream!*
   [^DataInputStream s]
   (let [type-id (.readByte s)]
@@ -190,10 +196,13 @@
      id-string  (String. (read-bytes! s) "UTF-8")
      id-keyword (keyword (.readUTF s))
 
-     id-list    (apply list (coll-thaw! s))
+     id-list    (apply list (coll-thaw! s)) ; TODO OOMs for big colls
      id-vector  (into  [] (coll-thaw! s))
      id-set     (into #{} (coll-thaw! s))
-     id-map     (apply hash-map (coll-thaw! s))
+     ;; id-map  (apply hash-map (coll-thaw! s)) ; OOMs for big colls
+     ;; id-map  (into {} (map vec (partition 2 (coll-thaw! s))) ; ~6.4x time
+     ;; id-map  (into {} (utils/pairs (coll-thaw! s)))          ; ~1.8x time
+     id-map     (into  {} (coll-thaw-pairs! s))                 ; ~0.8x time
      id-coll    (doall (coll-thaw! s))
      id-queue   (into  (PersistentQueue/EMPTY) (coll-thaw! s))
 
diff --git a/src/taoensso/nippy/utils.clj b/src/taoensso/nippy/utils.clj
index b70941e..17be404 100644
--- a/src/taoensso/nippy/utils.clj
+++ b/src/taoensso/nippy/utils.clj
@@ -13,6 +13,14 @@
                       clauses)
        ~(when default default))))
 
+(defn pairs
+  "Like (partition 2 coll) but faster and returns lazy seq of vector pairs."
+  [coll]
+  (lazy-seq
+   (when-let [s (seq coll)]
+     (let [n (next s)]
+       (cons [(first s) (first n)] (pairs (next n)))))))
+
 (defmacro time-ns
   "Returns number of nanoseconds it takes to execute body."
   [& body]