diff --git a/src/NPZ.jl b/src/NPZ.jl
index adbf1bb..dd609e8 100644
--- a/src/NPZ.jl
+++ b/src/NPZ.jl
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ module NPZ
 using ZipFile, FileIO
 import Base.CodeUnits
 
-export npzread, npzwrite
+export npzread, npzwrite, npzreadfrom, npzwriteto
 
 const NPYMagic = UInt8[0x93, 'N', 'U', 'M', 'P', 'Y']
 const ZIPMagic = UInt8['P', 'K', 3, 4]
@@ -220,7 +220,39 @@ function _npzreadarray(f, hdr::Header{T}) where {T}
     ndims(x) == 0 ? x[1] : x
 end
 
-function npzreadarray(f::IO)
+"""
+    npzreadfrom(file::IO, [vars])
+
+Read a variable or a collection of variables from `file`. 
+The input needs to be either an `npy` or an `npz` file.
+The optional argument `vars` is used only for `npz` files.
+If it is specified, only the matching variables are read in from the file.
+
+!!! note "Zero-dimensional arrays"
+    Zero-dimensional arrays are stripped while being read in, and the values that they
+    contain are returned. This is a notable difference from numpy, where 
+    numerical values are written out and read back in as zero-dimensional arrays.
+
+# Examples
+
+```julia
+julia> npzwriteto("temp.npz", x = ones(3), y = 3)
+
+julia> open("temp.npz", "rb") do f
+    return npzreadfrom(f) # Reads all variables
+end
+Dict{String,Any} with 2 entries:
+  "x" => [1.0, 1.0, 1.0]
+  "y" => 3
+
+julia> open("temp.npz", "rb") do f
+    return npzreadfrom(f, ["x"]) # Reads only "x"
+end
+Dict{String,Array{Float64,1}} with 1 entry:
+  "x" => [1.0, 1.0, 1.0]
+```
+"""
+function npzreadfrom(f::IO)
     hdr = readheader(f)
     _npzreadarray(f, hdr)
 end
@@ -277,7 +309,7 @@ function npzread(filename::AbstractString, vars...)
         close(fz)
     elseif samestart(b, NPYMagic)
         seekstart(f)
-        data = npzreadarray(f)
+        data = npzreadfrom(f)
     else
         close(f)
         error("not a NPY or NPZ/Zip file: $filename")
@@ -289,7 +321,7 @@ end
 function npzread(dir::ZipFile.Reader, 
     vars = map(f -> _maybetrimext(f.name), dir.files))
 
-    Dict(_maybetrimext(f.name) => npzreadarray(f)
+    Dict(_maybetrimext(f.name) => npzreadfrom(f)
         for f in dir.files 
             if f.name in vars || _maybetrimext(f.name) in vars)
 end
@@ -329,7 +361,7 @@ function readheader(dir::ZipFile.Reader,
             if f.name in vars || _maybetrimext(f.name) in vars)
 end
 
-function npzwritearray(
+function npzwriteto(
     f::IO, x::AbstractArray{UInt8}, T::DataType, shape)
 
     if !haskey(Julia2Numpy, T)
@@ -356,12 +388,32 @@ function npzwritearray(
     end
 end
 
-function npzwritearray(f::IO, x::AbstractArray)
-    npzwritearray(f, reinterpret(UInt8, vec(x)), eltype(x), size(x))
+"""
+    npzwriteto(file::IO, x)
+
+Write the variable `x` to the `npy` file `file`. 
+The file should be open in writable binary mode "wb".
+
+# Examples
+
+```julia
+julia> open("abc.npy", "wb") do f
+    npzwriteto(f, zeros(3))
+end
+
+julia> npzread("abc.npy")
+3-element Array{Float64,1}:
+ 0.0
+ 0.0
+ 0.0
+```
+"""
+function npzwriteto(f::IO, x::AbstractArray)
+    npzwriteto(f, reinterpret(UInt8, vec(x)), eltype(x), size(x))
 end
 
-function npzwritearray(f::IO, x::Number)
-    npzwritearray(f, reinterpret(UInt8, [x]), typeof(x), ())
+function npzwriteto(f::IO, x::Number)
+    npzwriteto(f, reinterpret(UInt8, [x]), typeof(x), ())
 end
 
 """
@@ -387,7 +439,7 @@ julia> npzread("abc.npy")
 """
 function npzwrite(filename::AbstractString, x)
     open(filename, "w") do f
-        npzwritearray(f, x)
+        npzwriteto(f, x)
     end
 end
 
@@ -434,7 +486,7 @@ function npzwrite(filename::AbstractString, vars::Dict{<:AbstractString})
 
     for (k, v) in vars
         f = ZipFile.addfile(dir, k * ".npy")
-        npzwritearray(f, v)
+        npzwriteto(f, v)
         close(f)
     end