diff --git a/commons-serialize-xml/src/main/java/io/gitlab/jfronny/commons/serialize/xml/impl/BaseXmlReader.java b/commons-serialize-xml/src/main/java/io/gitlab/jfronny/commons/serialize/xml/impl/BaseXmlReader.java
index 65e5d61..4120fb3 100644
--- a/commons-serialize-xml/src/main/java/io/gitlab/jfronny/commons/serialize/xml/impl/BaseXmlReader.java
+++ b/commons-serialize-xml/src/main/java/io/gitlab/jfronny/commons/serialize/xml/impl/BaseXmlReader.java
@@ -74,7 +74,8 @@ public class BaseXmlReader implements Closeable {
     private String[] pathNames = new String[32];
     private int[] pathIndices = new int[32];
 
-    private boolean lenient = false; // TODO: make this configurable
+    private boolean lenient = false;
+    private boolean skipWhitespace = true;
     public BaseXmlReader(Reader in) {
         this.in = Objects.requireNonNull(in, "in == null");
     }
@@ -88,6 +89,15 @@ public class BaseXmlReader implements Closeable {
         return lenient;
     }
 
+    public BaseXmlReader setSkipWhitespace(boolean skipWhitespace) {
+        this.skipWhitespace = skipWhitespace;
+        return this;
+    }
+
+    public boolean isSkipWhitespace() {
+        return skipWhitespace;
+    }
+
     private void push(int newTop) {
         if (stackSize == stack.length) {
             int newLength = stackSize * 2;
@@ -231,9 +241,9 @@ public class BaseXmlReader implements Closeable {
         } else if (peekStack == XmlScope.DANGLING_NAME) {
             stack[stackSize - 1] = XmlScope.TAG_HEAD;
             // Look for an equals sign before the value
-            int c = nextNonWhitespace(true);
+            int c = lenient ? nextNonWhitespace(true) : buffer[pos++];
             if (c == '=') {
-                c = nextNonWhitespace(true);
+                c = lenient ? nextNonWhitespace(true) : buffer[pos++];
                 if (c == '\'' || c == '"') {
                     return peeked = PEEKED_ATTRIBUTE_VALUE;
                 } else {
@@ -248,7 +258,7 @@ public class BaseXmlReader implements Closeable {
             stack[stackSize - 1] = XmlScope.NONEMPTY_DOCUMENT;
             // fall through: a new element is starting
         } else if (peekStack == XmlScope.NONEMPTY_DOCUMENT) {
-            int c = nextNonWhitespace(false);
+            int c = skipWhitespace ? nextNonWhitespace(false) : buffer[pos++];
             if (c == -1) {
                 return peeked = PEEKED_EOF;
             } else {
@@ -259,7 +269,7 @@ public class BaseXmlReader implements Closeable {
         } else if (peekStack == XmlScope.CLOSED) {
             throw new IllegalStateException("BaseXmlReader is closed");
         }
-        int c = nextNonWhitespace(true);
+        int c = skipWhitespace ? nextNonWhitespace(true) : buffer[pos++];
         if (c == -1) {
             throw syntaxError("Unterminated tag");
         } else if (c == '<') {
@@ -442,7 +452,12 @@ public class BaseXmlReader implements Closeable {
         if (p != PEEKED_TEXT) {
             throw unexpectedTokenError("TEXT");
         }
-        return readUntil((c, i) -> c == '<', true);
+        String result = readUntil((c, i) -> c == '<', true);
+        if (skipWhitespace) {
+            result = result.trim();
+        }
+        peeked = PEEKED_NONE;
+        return result;
     }
 
     public String nextCData() throws IOException {