diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 572bb84..93989e4 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,2 +1,56 @@
 dist
 /env/
+# Byte-compiled / optimized / DLL files
+__pycache__/
+*.py[cod]
+
+# C extensions
+*.so
+
+# Distribution / packaging
+.Python
+env/
+build/
+develop-eggs/
+dist/
+downloads/
+eggs/
+lib/
+lib64/
+parts/
+sdist/
+var/
+*.egg-info/
+.installed.cfg
+*.egg
+
+# PyInstaller
+#  Usually these files are written by a python script from a template
+#  before PyInstaller builds the exe, so as to inject date/other infos into it.
+*.manifest
+*.spec
+
+# Installer logs
+pip-log.txt
+pip-delete-this-directory.txt
+
+# Unit test / coverage reports
+htmlcov/
+.tox/
+.coverage
+.cache
+nosetests.xml
+coverage.xml
+
+# Translations
+*.mo
+*.pot
+
+# Django stuff:
+*.log
+
+# Sphinx documentation
+docs/_build/
+
+# PyBuilder
+target/
diff --git a/ever2simple/converter.py b/ever2simple/converter.py
index 4a3f849..0a511cb 100644
--- a/ever2simple/converter.py
+++ b/ever2simple/converter.py
@@ -1,8 +1,14 @@
+from __future__ import print_function
+from __future__ import unicode_literals
+from __future__ import division
+from __future__ import absolute_import
+from builtins import open
+from builtins import str
 import json
 import os
 import sys
 from csv import DictWriter
-from cStringIO import StringIO
+from io import StringIO
 from dateutil.parser import parse
 from html2text import HTML2Text
 from lxml import etree
@@ -15,7 +21,8 @@ class EverConverter(object):
     fieldnames = ['createdate', 'modifydate', 'content', 'tags']
     date_fmt = '%h %d %Y %H:%M:%S'
 
-    def __init__(self, enex_filename, simple_filename=None, fmt='json'):
+    def __init__(self, enex_filename, simple_filename=None, fmt='json',
+                 preserve_title=False, verbose=False):
         self.enex_filename = os.path.expanduser(enex_filename)
         self.stdout = False
         if simple_filename is None:
@@ -24,14 +31,16 @@ def __init__(self, enex_filename, simple_filename=None, fmt='json'):
         else:
             self.simple_filename = os.path.expanduser(simple_filename)
         self.fmt = fmt
+        self.preserve_title = preserve_title
+        self.verbose = verbose
 
     def _load_xml(self, enex_file):
         try:
             parser = etree.XMLParser(huge_tree=True)
             xml_tree = etree.parse(enex_file, parser)
-        except (etree.XMLSyntaxError, ), e:
-            print 'Could not parse XML'
-            print e
+        except (etree.XMLSyntaxError, ) as e:
+            print('Could not parse XML')
+            print(e)
             sys.exit(1)
         return xml_tree
 
@@ -41,6 +50,7 @@ def prepare_notes(self, xml_tree):
         for note in raw_notes:
             note_dict = {}
             title = note.xpath('title')[0].text
+            note_dict['title'] = title
             # Use dateutil to figure out these dates
             # 20110610T182917Z
             created_string = parse('19700101T000017Z')
@@ -66,12 +76,14 @@ def prepare_notes(self, xml_tree):
                     #      ignoring the problem for now.
                     converted_text = converted_text.encode('ascii', 'ignore')
                 note_dict['content'] = converted_text
+                if self.verbose:
+                    print("note_dict: {}".format(note_dict))
             notes.append(note_dict)
         return notes
 
     def convert(self):
         if not os.path.exists(self.enex_filename):
-            print "File does not exist: %s" % self.enex_filename
+            print("File does not exist: {}".format(self.enex_filename))
             sys.exit(1)
         # TODO: use with here, but pyflakes barfs on it
         enex_file = open(self.enex_filename)
@@ -115,12 +127,37 @@ def _convert_dir(self, notes):
         if self.simple_filename is None:
             sys.stdout.write(json.dumps(notes))
         else:
-            if os.path.exists(self.simple_filename) and not os.path.isdir(self.simple_filename):
-                print '"%s" exists but is not a directory. %s' % self.simple_filename
+            if (os.path.exists(self.simple_filename) and
+                    not os.path.isdir(self.simple_filename)):
+                print('"{}" exists but is not a directory.'.format(
+                  self.simple_filename))
                 sys.exit(1)
             elif not os.path.exists(self.simple_filename):
                 os.makedirs(self.simple_filename)
             for i, note in enumerate(notes):
-                output_file_path = os.path.join(self.simple_filename, str(i) + '.txt')
-                with open(output_file_path, 'w') as output_file:
-                    output_file.write(note['content'].encode(encoding='utf-8'))
+                if self.preserve_title:
+                    # (nicholaskuechler) try to preserve the title, but replace
+                    # spaces with underscores, replace forward slash with dash,
+                    # and preserve the note number in case of duplicate titles.
+                    note_title = note['title']
+                    # replace spaces with underscores
+                    note_title = note_title.replace(' ', '_')
+                    # replace forward slaces with dashes
+                    note_title = note_title.replace('/', '-')
+                    note_title = "%s-%s" % (note_title, i)
+                else:
+                    note_title = str(i)
+
+                try:
+                    output_file_path = \
+                        os.path.join(self.simple_filename, note_title + '.txt')
+                    with open(output_file_path, 'w') as output_file:
+                        output_file.write(note['content'])
+                except Exception as e:
+                    output_file_path = os.path.join(
+                        self.simple_filename,
+                        "title_fail" + '-' + str(i) + '.txt')
+                    print("failed to use title for filename: {}".format(e))
+                    with open(output_file_path, 'w') as output_file:
+                        output_file.write(note['content'])
+
diff --git a/ever2simple/core.py b/ever2simple/core.py
index cfdcf33..2da5507 100644
--- a/ever2simple/core.py
+++ b/ever2simple/core.py
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+from __future__ import print_function
+from __future__ import unicode_literals
+from __future__ import division
+from __future__ import absolute_import
 import os
 import sys
 from ever2simple.converter import EverConverter
@@ -5,19 +9,45 @@
 
 
 def main():
-    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog=None, description="Convert Evernote.enex files to Markdown", formatter_class=argparse.ArgumentDefaultsHelpFormatter)
-    parser.add_argument('enex-file', help="the path to the Evernote.enex file")
-    parser.add_argument('-o', '--output', help="the path to the output file or directory, leave black to output to the terminal (stdout)")
-    parser.add_argument('-f', '--format', help="the output format, json, csv or a directory", choices=['json', 'csv', 'dir'], default='json')
+    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(
+        prog=None,
+        description="Convert Evernote.enex files to Markdown",
+        formatter_class=argparse.ArgumentDefaultsHelpFormatter)
+    parser.add_argument(
+        'enex-file',
+        help="the path to the Evernote.enex file")
+    parser.add_argument(
+        '-o', '--output',
+        help=("the path to the output file or directory, leave blank to "
+              "output to the terminal (stdout)"))
+    parser.add_argument(
+        '-f', '--format',
+        help="the output format, json, csv or a directory",
+        choices=['json', 'csv', 'dir'],
+        default='json')
+    parser.add_argument(
+        '--preserve_title',
+        action="store_true",
+        help="Try to preserve the note title as the file name",
+        default=False)
+    parser.add_argument(
+        '-v', '--verbose',
+        action="store_true",
+        help="Increase output verbosity",
+        default=False)
     args = parser.parse_args()
     enex_file = vars(args)['enex-file']
     output = args.output
     fmt = args.format
+    preserve_title = args.preserve_title
+    verbose = args.verbose
     filepath = os.path.expanduser(enex_file)
+
     if not os.path.exists(filepath):
-        print 'File does not exist: %s' % filepath
+        print('File does not exist: {}'.format(filepath))
         sys.exit(1)
-    converter = EverConverter(filepath, simple_filename=output, fmt=fmt)
+    converter = EverConverter(filepath, simple_filename=output, fmt=fmt,
+                              preserve_title=preserve_title, verbose=verbose)
     converter.convert()
     sys.exit()
 
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 07936af..20f7d93 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 from setuptools import setup, find_packages
 
-version = '2.0'
+version = '2.1'
 
 setup(
     name='ever2simple',
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@
     zip_safe=False,
     install_requires=[
         'lxml',
-        'python-dateutil<2.0',
+        'python-dateutil>=2.0',
         'html2text',
     ],
     entry_points="""