diff --git a/README.rst b/README.rst
index a57777f..1295280 100644
--- a/README.rst
+++ b/README.rst
@@ -4,4 +4,70 @@ rfc3986
 A Python implementation of `RFC 3986`_ including validation and authority 
 parsing. Coming soon: `Reference Resolution <http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3986#section-5>`_.
 
+Example Usage
+-------------
+
+To parse a URI into a convenient named tuple, you can simply::
+
+    from rfc3986 import uri_reference
+
+    example = uri_reference('http://example.com')
+    email = uri_reference('mailto:user@domain.com')
+    ssh = uri_reference('ssh://user@git.openstack.org:29418/openstack/keystone.git')
+
+With a parsed URI you can access data about the components::
+
+    print(example.scheme)  # => http
+    print(email.path)  # => user@domain.com
+    print(ssh.userinfo)  # => user
+    print(ssh.host)  # => git.openstack.org
+    print(ssh.port)  # => 29418
+
+It can also parse URIs with unicode present::
+
+    uni = uri_reference(b'http://httpbin.org/get?utf8=\xe2\x98\x83')  # ☃
+    print(uni.query)  # utf8=%E2%98%83
+
+With a parsed URI you can also validate it::
+
+    if ssh.is_valid():
+        subprocess.call(['git', 'clone', ssh.unsplit()])
+
+You can also take a parsed URI and normalize it::
+
+    mangled = uri_reference('hTTp://exAMPLe.COM')
+    print(mangled.scheme)  # => hTTp
+    print(mangled.authority)  # => exAMPLe.COM
+
+    normal = mangled.normalize()
+    print(normal.scheme)  # => http
+    print(mangled.authority)  # => example.com
+
+But these two URIs are (functionally) equivalent::
+
+    if normal == mangled:
+        webbrowser.open(normal.unsplit())
+
+Your paths, queries, and fragments are safe with us though::
+
+    mangled = uri_reference('hTTp://exAMPLe.COM/Some/reallY/biZZare/pAth')
+    normal = mangled.normalize()
+    assert normal == 'hTTp://exAMPLe.COM/Some/reallY/biZZare/pAth'
+    assert normal == 'http://example.com/Some/reallY/biZZare/pAth'
+    assert normal != 'http://example.com/some/really/bizzare/path'
+
+If you do not actually need a real reference object and just want to normalize
+your URI::
+
+    from rfc3986 import normalize_uri
+
+    assert (normalize_uri('hTTp://exAMPLe.COM/Some/reallY/biZZare/pAth') ==
+            'http://example.com/Some/reallY/biZZare/pAth')
+
+You can also very simply validate a URI::
+
+    from rfc3986 import is_valid_uri
+
+    assert is_valid_uri('hTTp://exAMPLe.COM/Some/reallY/biZZare/pAth')
+
 .. _RFC 3986: http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3986