diff --git a/src/main/scala/com/databricks/spark/avro/DefaultSource.scala b/src/main/scala/com/databricks/spark/avro/DefaultSource.scala
index 4ebcec85..8b5aa4c9 100644
--- a/src/main/scala/com/databricks/spark/avro/DefaultSource.scala
+++ b/src/main/scala/com/databricks/spark/avro/DefaultSource.scala
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ import java.util.zip.Deflater
 import scala.util.control.NonFatal
 
 import com.databricks.spark.avro.DefaultSource.{AvroSchema, IgnoreFilesWithoutExtensionProperty, SerializableConfiguration}
+import com.databricks.spark.avro.generic.SparkGenericDatumReader
 import com.esotericsoftware.kryo.{Kryo, KryoSerializable}
 import com.esotericsoftware.kryo.io.{Input, Output}
 import org.apache.avro.{Schema, SchemaBuilder}
@@ -178,10 +179,8 @@ private[avro] class DefaultSource extends FileFormat with DataSourceRegister {
         val reader = {
           val in = new FsInput(new Path(new URI(file.filePath)), conf)
           try {
-            val datumReader = userProvidedSchema match {
-              case Some(userSchema) => new GenericDatumReader[GenericRecord](userSchema)
-              case _ => new GenericDatumReader[GenericRecord]()
-            }
+            val datumReader = new SparkGenericDatumReader()
+            userProvidedSchema.foreach(datumReader.setSchema)
             DataFileReader.openReader(in, datumReader)
           } catch {
             case NonFatal(e) =>
@@ -210,9 +209,11 @@ private[avro] class DefaultSource extends FileFormat with DataSourceRegister {
           private val encoderForDataColumns = RowEncoder(requiredSchema)
 
           private[this] var completed = false
+          private var record: GenericRecord = _
 
           override def hasNext: Boolean = {
             if (completed) {
+              record = null
               false
             } else {
               val r = reader.hasNext && !reader.pastSync(stop)
@@ -228,7 +229,9 @@ private[avro] class DefaultSource extends FileFormat with DataSourceRegister {
             if (reader.pastSync(stop)) {
               throw new NoSuchElementException("next on empty iterator")
             }
-            val record = reader.next()
+
+            // record is reused by avro, we copy it's content with rowconverter
+            record = reader.next(record)
             val safeDataRow = rowConverter(record).asInstanceOf[GenericRow]
 
             // The safeDataRow is reused, we must do a copy
diff --git a/src/main/scala/com/databricks/spark/avro/SchemaConverters.scala b/src/main/scala/com/databricks/spark/avro/SchemaConverters.scala
index 4fbdccdc..005a2e23 100644
--- a/src/main/scala/com/databricks/spark/avro/SchemaConverters.scala
+++ b/src/main/scala/com/databricks/spark/avro/SchemaConverters.scala
@@ -143,14 +143,12 @@ object SchemaConverters {
     targetSqlType: DataType): AnyRef => AnyRef = {
 
     def createConverter(avroSchema: Schema,
-        sqlType: DataType, path: List[String]): AnyRef => AnyRef = {
+      sparkSqlType: DataType, path: List[String]): AnyRef => AnyRef = {
       val avroType = avroSchema.getType
-      (sqlType, avroType) match {
-        // Avro strings are in Utf8, so we have to call toString on them
-        case (StringType, STRING) | (StringType, ENUM) =>
-          (item: AnyRef) => item.toString
-        // Byte arrays are reused by avro, so we have to make a copy of them.
-        case (IntegerType, INT) | (BooleanType, BOOLEAN) | (DoubleType, DOUBLE) |
+      (sparkSqlType, avroType) match {
+        case (StringType, ENUM) => (item: AnyRef) => item.toString
+        case (StringType, STRING) | (IntegerType, INT) |
+             (BooleanType, BOOLEAN) | (DoubleType, DOUBLE) |
              (FloatType, FLOAT) | (LongType, LONG) =>
           identity
         case (TimestampType, LONG) =>
@@ -160,7 +158,8 @@ object SchemaConverters {
         case (BinaryType, FIXED) =>
           (item: AnyRef) => item.asInstanceOf[GenericFixed].bytes().clone()
         case (BinaryType, BYTES) =>
-          (item: AnyRef) =>
+          // Byte arrays are reused by avro, so we have to make a copy of them.
+        (item: AnyRef) =>
             val byteBuffer = item.asInstanceOf[ByteBuffer]
             val bytes = new Array[Byte](byteBuffer.remaining)
             byteBuffer.get(bytes)
diff --git a/src/main/scala/com/databricks/spark/avro/generic/SparkGenericDatumReader.scala b/src/main/scala/com/databricks/spark/avro/generic/SparkGenericDatumReader.scala
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..9e0fb9c2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/scala/com/databricks/spark/avro/generic/SparkGenericDatumReader.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+package com.databricks.spark.avro.generic
+
+import org.apache.avro.Schema
+import org.apache.avro.generic.{GenericDatumReader, GenericRecord}
+
+ /**
+  *  A generic datumreader that reads strings as string instead of utf-8
+  */
+class SparkGenericDatumReader extends GenericDatumReader[GenericRecord]{
+
+  override def findStringClass(
+
+    schema: Schema): Class[_] = classOf[String]
+
+}