diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index f8260f9..5c8f09b 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 cache
+__pycache__
 
 node_modules
 /frontend/dist
diff --git a/local_reader.py b/local_reader.py
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..7549587
--- /dev/null
+++ b/local_reader.py
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+from flask import Flask, jsonify, render_template, Response
+from mimetypes import types_map as mimetypes
+from zipfile import ZipFile
+import logging
+import os
+import sys
+import webbrowser
+import werkzeug.exceptions as exceptions
+
+# disable access log
+log = logging.getLogger('werkzeug')
+log.setLevel(logging.ERROR)
+# disable flask startup message
+os.environ['WERKZEUG_RUN_MAIN'] = 'true'
+
+mimetypes['.webp'] = 'image/webp'
+archive = ZipFile(sys.argv[1], 'r')
+app = Flask(__name__, static_folder='frontend/dist/static', template_folder='frontend/dist')
+
+# kind of redundant, but avoids returning 200 if page does not exist
+@app.route('/')
+@app.route('/series/0')
+@app.route('/volume/0')
+def serve_app(**kwargs):
+    return render_template('index.html')
+
+
+@app.route('/api/volume/0')
+def get_volume_info():
+    return jsonify({
+        'pages': len(archive.filelist),
+        'series': 0,
+        'title': 'local'
+    })
+
+
+@app.route('/api/volume/0/page/<int:page_number>')
+def get_volume_page(page_number):
+    try:
+        page = archive.filelist[page_number - 1]
+    except IndexError:
+        raise exceptions.NotFound() from None
+    mimetype = mimetypes[os.path.splitext(page.filename)[1]]
+    return Response(archive.read(page.filename), mimetype=mimetype)
+
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    webbrowser.open('http://localhost:5051/volume/0')
+    app.run(host='127.0.0.1', port=5051)