diff --git a/lib/tidy_ffi/lib_tidy.rb b/lib/tidy_ffi/lib_tidy.rb
index 821a41d..ea7d6e9 100644
--- a/lib/tidy_ffi/lib_tidy.rb
+++ b/lib/tidy_ffi/lib_tidy.rb
@@ -3,7 +3,14 @@
 # This file must be lazy loaded!
 class TidyFFI::LibTidy #:nodoc:
   extend FFI::Library
-  ffi_lib TidyFFI.library_path
+
+  paths = Array(TidyFFI.library_path || Dir['/{opt,usr}/{,local/}lib{,64}/libtidy.{dylib,so*}'])
+  begin
+    ffi_lib(*paths)
+  rescue LoadError
+    raise TidyFFI::LibTidyNotInstalled, "didn't find tidy libs on your system. Please install tidy (http://tidy.sourceforge.net/)"
+  end
+
 
   attach_function :tidyReleaseDate, [], :string
 
diff --git a/lib/tidy_ffi/tidy_ffi_extensions.rb b/lib/tidy_ffi/tidy_ffi_extensions.rb
index b62c88a..aefe625 100644
--- a/lib/tidy_ffi/tidy_ffi_extensions.rb
+++ b/lib/tidy_ffi/tidy_ffi_extensions.rb
@@ -1,12 +1,5 @@
 module TidyFFI::TidyFFIExtensions #:nodoc:
-  # Sets path to libtidy.{dylib,so}
-  def library_path=(path)
-    @libtidy_path = path
-  end
-
-  # Returns path to libtidy.{dylib,so}
-  def library_path
-    @libtidy_path ||= 'tidy'
-  end
+  # Sets and gets path to libtidy.{dylib,so}
+  attr_accessor :library_path
 end
 TidyFFI.extend TidyFFI::TidyFFIExtensions