diff --git a/base b/base
index 22a6e4f616eb..4518f064473c 160000
--- a/base
+++ b/base
@@ -1 +1 @@
-Subproject commit 22a6e4f616ebf31a982c55a8898c1f3f36c40577
+Subproject commit 4518f064473c46d875239c0d352cf7e3ffd1ee34
diff --git a/plugins/calibre.koplugin/main.lua b/plugins/calibre.koplugin/main.lua
index dd5b82f9def5..2842062835b3 100644
--- a/plugins/calibre.koplugin/main.lua
+++ b/plugins/calibre.koplugin/main.lua
@@ -118,6 +118,11 @@ function Calibre:addToMainMenu(menu_items)
                 keep_menu_open = true,
                 sub_item_table = self:getWirelessMenuTable(),
             },
+            {
+                text = _("JSON parser"),
+                keep_menu_open = true,
+                sub_item_table = self:getParserMenuTable(),
+            },
         }
     }
     -- insert the metadata search
@@ -414,4 +419,50 @@ function Calibre:getWirelessMenuTable()
     return t
 end
 
+function Calibre:getParserMenuTable()
+    return {
+        {
+            text = _("Automatic"),
+            help_text = _("The program will decide based on the size of the JSON file. Recommended"),
+            checked_func = function()
+                return G_reader_settings:hasNot("calibre_json_parser")
+            end,
+            callback = function()
+                G_reader_settings:delSetting("calibre_json_parser")
+            end,
+        },
+        {
+            text = _("Fast"),
+            help_text = _("Faster parsing, but may not take too kindly to malformed input files"),
+            checked_func = function()
+                return G_reader_settings:readSetting("calibre_json_parser") == "fast"
+            end,
+            callback = function()
+                G_reader_settings:saveSetting("calibre_json_parser", "fast")
+            end,
+        },
+        {
+            text = _("Safe"),
+            help_text = _("Slower, but safer. Useful if you're experiencing problems with the other modes"),
+            checked_func = function()
+                return G_reader_settings:readSetting("calibre_json_parser") == "safe"
+            end,
+            callback = function()
+                G_reader_settings:saveSetting("calibre_json_parser", "safe")
+            end,
+        },
+        {
+            text = _("Legacy"),
+            help_text = _("Fast, but requires more RAM, only recommended on modest library sizes (or beefier devices)"),
+            checked_func = function()
+                return G_reader_settings:readSetting("calibre_json_parser") == "legacy"
+            end,
+            callback = function()
+                G_reader_settings:saveSetting("calibre_json_parser", "legacy")
+            end,
+        },
+    }
+end
+
+
 return Calibre
diff --git a/plugins/calibre.koplugin/metadata.lua b/plugins/calibre.koplugin/metadata.lua
index fa78d21abf58..518aef84eb9f 100644
--- a/plugins/calibre.koplugin/metadata.lua
+++ b/plugins/calibre.koplugin/metadata.lua
@@ -52,9 +52,9 @@ local function slim(book, is_search)
     return slim_book
 end
 
--- this is the max file size we attempt to decode using json. For larger
--- files we want to attempt to manually parse the file to avoid OOM errors
-local MAX_JSON_FILESIZE = 30 * 1000 * 1000
+-- This is the max file size we attempt to decode using rapidjson.
+-- For larger files we use a sax parser to avoid OOM errors
+local MAX_JSON_FILESIZE = 50 * 1024 * 1024
 
 --- find calibre files for a given dir
 local function findCalibreFiles(dir)
@@ -121,8 +121,11 @@ function CalibreMetadata:loadBookList()
         return {}
     end
     local books, err
-    if attr.size > MAX_JSON_FILESIZE then
-        books, err = parser.parseFile(self.metadata)
+    local impl = G_reader_settings:readSetting("calibre_json_parser") or attr.size > MAX_JSON_FILESIZE and "safe" or "fast"
+    if impl == "fast" then
+        books, err = rapidjson.load_calibre(self.metadata)
+    elseif impl == "safe" then
+         books, err = parser.parseFile(self.metadata)
     else
         books, err = rapidjson.load(self.metadata)
     end
diff --git a/plugins/calibre.koplugin/parser.lua b/plugins/calibre.koplugin/parser.lua
index 405c5c65b1fd..4a306cbda2b2 100644
--- a/plugins/calibre.koplugin/parser.lua
+++ b/plugins/calibre.koplugin/parser.lua
@@ -1,90 +1,96 @@
--- A parser for metadata.calibre
-local util = require("util")
+-- parse "metadata.calibre" files
+local lj = require("lunajson")
 
--- removes leading and closing characters and converts hex-unicodes
-local function replaceHexChars(s, n, j)
-    local l = string.len(s)
-    if string.sub(s, l, l) == "\"" then
-        s = string.sub(s, n, string.len(s)-1)
-    else
-        s = string.sub(s, n, string.len(s)-j)
-    end
-    s = string.gsub(s, "\\u([a-f0-9][a-f0-9][a-f0-9][a-f0-9])", function(w)
-        return util.unicodeCodepointToUtf8(tonumber(w, 16))
-    end)
-    return s
-end
+local array_fields = {
+    authors = true,
+    tags = true,
+    series = true,
+}
 
--- a couple of string helper functions for dealing with raw json strings
-local function isEqual(str, key)
-    if str:sub(1, key:len() + 6) == string.format("    \"%s\"", key) then
-        return true
-    end
-    return false
-end
+local required_fields = {
+    authors = true,
+    last_modified = true,
+    lpath = true,
+    series = true,
+    series_index = true,
+    size = true,
+    tags = true,
+    title = true,
+    uuid = true,
+}
 
-local function getValue(str, key)
-    if str == string.format("    \"%s\": null, ", key) then
-        return nil
+local field
+local t = {}
+local function append(v)
+    -- Some fields *may* be arrays, so check whether we ran through startarray first or not
+    if t[field] then
+        table.insert(t[field], v)
     else
-        return replaceHexChars(str, key:len() + 10, key == "series_index" and 2 or 3)
+        t[field] = v
+        field = nil
     end
 end
 
-local jsonStr = getmetatable("")
-jsonStr.__index["equals"] = isEqual
-jsonStr.__index["value"] = getValue
+local depth = 0
+local result = {}
+local sax = {
+    startobject = function()
+        depth = depth + 1
+    end,
+    endobject = function()
+        if depth == 1 then
+            table.insert(result, t)
+            t = {}
+        end
+        depth = depth - 1
+    end,
+    startarray = function()
+        if array_fields[field] then
+            t[field] = {}
+        end
+    end,
+    endarray = function()
+        if field then
+            field = nil
+        end
+    end,
+    key = function(s)
+        if required_fields[s] then
+            field = s
+        end
+    end,
+    string = function(s)
+        if field then
+            append(s)
+        end
+    end,
+    number = function(n)
+        if field then
+            append(n)
+        end
+    end,
+    boolean = function(b)
+        if field then
+            append(b)
+        end
+    end,
+}
 
+local function parse_unsafe(path)
+    local p = lj.newfileparser(path, sax)
+    p.run()
+end
 
 local parser = {}
 
--- read metadata from file, line by line, and keep just the data we need
 function parser.parseFile(file)
-    assert(type(file) == "string", "wrong type (expected a string")
-    local f, err = io.open(file, "rb")
-    if not f then
-        return nil, string.format("error parsing %s: %s", file, err)
-    end
-    f:close()
-    local add = function(t, line)
-        if type(t) ~= "table" or type(line) ~= "string" then
-            return {}
-        end
-        line = replaceHexChars(line, 8, 3)
-        table.insert(t, #t + 1, line)
-        return t
-    end
-    local books, book = {}, {}
-    local is_author, is_tag = false, false
-    for line in io.lines(file) do
-        if line == "  }, " or line == "  }" then
-            if type(book) == "table" then
-                table.insert(books, #books + 1, book)
-            end
-            book = {}
-        elseif line == "    \"authors\": [" then
-            is_author = true
-        elseif line == "    \"tags\": [" then
-            is_tag = true
-        elseif line == "    ], " or line == "    ]" then
-            is_author, is_tag = false, false
-        else
-            for _, key in ipairs({"title", "uuid", "lpath", "size",
-                "last_modified", "series", "series_index"})
-            do
-                if line:equals(key) then
-                    book[key] = line:value(key)
-                    break
-                end
-            end
-        end
-        if is_author then
-            book.authors = add(book.authors, line)
-        elseif is_tag then
-            book.tags = add(book.tags, line)
-        end
+    result = {}
+    local ok, err = pcall(parse_unsafe, file)
+    field = nil
+    if not ok then
+        return nil, err
     end
-    return books
+    return result
 end
 
 return parser