diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index e9b901c..3064017 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ EXTRA=
 G=-ggdb
 O=-Og
 CFLAGS=$(CCONFIG) $(EXTRA) $(CWARN) $(G) $(O) $(OSFLAGS)
-LDLIBS=-lgc -lcord -lreadline -lm -lunistring -lgmp -ldl
+LDLIBS=-lgc -lcord -lm -lunistring -lgmp -ldl
 BUILTIN_OBJS=builtins/array.o builtins/bool.o builtins/channel.o builtins/nums.o builtins/functions.o builtins/integers.o \
 						 builtins/pointer.o builtins/memory.o builtins/text.o builtins/thread.o builtins/c_string.o builtins/table.o \
 						 builtins/types.o builtins/util.o builtins/files.o builtins/range.o
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ tomo: tomo.o $(BUILTIN_OBJS) SipHash/halfsiphash.o ast.o parse.o environment.o t
 	$(CC) $(CFLAGS) $(LDFLAGS) $^ $(LDLIBS) -o $@
 
 libtomo.so: $(BUILTIN_OBJS) SipHash/halfsiphash.o
-	$(CC) $^ $(CFLAGS) $(EXTRA) $(CWARN) $(G) $(O) $(OSFLAGS) -lgc -lcord -lreadline -lm -lunistring -lgmp -ldl -Wl,-soname,libtomo.so -shared -o $@
+	$(CC) $^ $(CFLAGS) $(EXTRA) $(CWARN) $(G) $(O) $(OSFLAGS) -lgc -lcord -lm -lunistring -lgmp -ldl -Wl,-soname,libtomo.so -shared -o $@
 
 SipHash/halfsiphash.c:
 	git submodule update --init --recursive
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index ef74f99..f9eb2e2 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -79,8 +79,6 @@ Tomo has a very small set of dependencies:
 - [GNU multiple precision arithmetic library](https://gmplib.org/manual/index)
   for arbitrary precision integer math.
 - [Binutils](https://www.gnu.org/software/binutils/) for stack traces.
-- [Readline](https://tiswww.case.edu/php/chet/readline/rltop.html) for reading
-  user input with nice editing.
 - a C compiler
 - and libc/libm, which should definitely already be installed.
 
diff --git a/builtins/text.c b/builtins/text.c
index b5ae4fc..59e12c6 100644
--- a/builtins/text.c
+++ b/builtins/text.c
@@ -8,8 +8,6 @@
 #include <gmp.h>
 #include <limits.h>
 #include <printf.h>
-#include <readline/history.h>
-#include <readline/readline.h>
 #include <stdbool.h>
 #include <stdint.h>
 #include <stdlib.h>