diff --git a/common/src/main/java/lingo/common/WordReader.java b/common/src/main/java/lingo/common/WordReader.java
index 97cee99..aa574fa 100644
--- a/common/src/main/java/lingo/common/WordReader.java
+++ b/common/src/main/java/lingo/common/WordReader.java
@@ -1,21 +1,38 @@
 package lingo.common;
 
-import java.net.URI;
-import java.nio.file.Files;
-import java.nio.file.Paths;
+import java.io.BufferedReader;
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.InputStream;
+import java.io.InputStreamReader;
+import java.util.ArrayList;
+import java.util.Collection;
 import java.util.HashSet;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Set;
 
 public class WordReader {
 
-	public static List<String> readFileToList(String filename) throws Exception {
-		final URI resource = WordReader.class.getResource(filename).toURI();
-		return Files.readAllLines(Paths.get(resource));
+	private static void readFileToCollection(String filename, Collection<String> c) throws IOException {
+		try (final InputStream stream = WordReader.class.getResourceAsStream(filename);
+				final InputStreamReader streamReader = new InputStreamReader(stream);
+				final BufferedReader bufferedReader = new BufferedReader(streamReader)) {
+			String line = null;
+			while ((line = bufferedReader.readLine()) != null) {
+				c.add(line);
+			}
+		}
 	}
 
-	public static Set<String> readFileToSet(String filename) throws Exception {
-		return new HashSet<>(readFileToList(filename));
+	public static List<String> readFileToList(String filename) throws IOException {
+		final List<String> list = new ArrayList<>();
+		readFileToCollection(filename, list);
+		return list;
+	}
+
+	public static Set<String> readFileToSet(String filename) throws IOException {
+		final Set<String> list = new HashSet<>();
+		readFileToCollection(filename, list);
+		return list;
 	}
 
 }
diff --git a/server/src/main/java/lingo/server/WordRepository.java b/server/src/main/java/lingo/server/WordRepository.java
index 27e2e59..eaad226 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/lingo/server/WordRepository.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/lingo/server/WordRepository.java
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 package lingo.server;
 
+import java.io.IOException;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Collections;
 import java.util.List;
@@ -16,7 +17,7 @@ public class WordRepository {
 
 	private final List<String> words;
 
-	public WordRepository() throws Exception {
+	public WordRepository() throws IOException {
 		guesses = WordReader.readFileToSet("/guesses.txt");
 		words = WordReader.readFileToList("/words.txt");
 	}