diff -r 0056aaf42bf7 Lib/pathlib.py
--- a/Lib/pathlib.py	Wed Jan 15 15:09:43 2014 +0000
+++ b/Lib/pathlib.py	Thu Jan 23 18:36:55 2014 -0600
@@ -1069,6 +1069,39 @@
         return io.open(str(self), mode, buffering, encoding, errors, newline,
                        opener=self._opener)
 
+    def read_bytes(self):
+        """
+        Open the file in bytes mode, read it, and close the file.
+        """
+        with self.open(mode='rb') as f:
+            return f.read()
+
+    def read_text(self, encoding=None, errors=None, newline=None):
+        """
+        Open the file in text mode, read it, and close the file.
+        """
+        with self.open(mode='r', encoding=encoding,
+                       errors=errors, newline=newline) as f:
+            return f.read()
+
+    def write_bytes(self, data, append=False):
+        """
+        Open the file in bytes mode, write to it, and close the file.
+        """
+        mode = 'ab' if append else 'wb'
+        with self.open(mode=mode) as f:
+            return f.write(data)
+
+    def write_text(self, data,
+                   encoding=None, errors=None, newline=None, append=False):
+        """
+        Open the file in text mode, write to it, and close the file.
+        """
+        mode = 'a' if append else 'w'
+        with self.open(mode=mode, encoding=encoding,
+                       errors=errors, newline=newline) as f:
+            return f.write(data)
+
     def touch(self, mode=0o666, exist_ok=True):
         """
         Create this file with the given access mode, if it doesn't exist.
diff -r 0056aaf42bf7 Lib/test/test_pathlib.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_pathlib.py	Wed Jan 15 15:09:43 2014 +0000
+++ b/Lib/test/test_pathlib.py	Thu Jan 23 18:36:55 2014 -0600
@@ -1250,6 +1250,41 @@
             self.assertIsInstance(f, io.RawIOBase)
             self.assertEqual(f.read().strip(), b"this is file A")
 
+    def test_read_bytes(self):
+        p = self.cls(BASE)
+        with (p / 'fileA').open('wb') as f:
+            f.write(b'abcdef')
+            f.flush()
+        self.assertEqual((p / 'fileA').read_bytes(), b'abcdef')
+
+    def test_read_text(self):
+        p = self.cls(BASE)
+        with (p / 'fileA').open('w') as f:
+            f.write('abcdef')
+            f.flush()
+        self.assertEqual((p / 'fileA').read_text(), 'abcdef')
+
+    def test_write_bytes(self):
+        p = self.cls(BASE)
+        (p / 'fileA').write_bytes(b'abcdefg')
+        with (p / 'fileA').open('rb') as f:
+            self.assertEqual(f.read(), b'abcdefg')
+        (p / 'fileA').write_bytes(b'hijk', append=True)
+        with (p / 'fileA').open('rb') as f:
+            self.assertEqual(f.read(), b'abcdefghijk')
+        self.assertRaises(TypeError, (p / 'fileA').write_bytes, 'badstr')
+
+    def test_write_text(self):
+        p = self.cls(BASE)
+        (p / 'fileA').write_text('abcdefg')
+        with (p / 'fileA').open('r') as f:
+            self.assertEqual(f.read(), 'abcdefg')
+        (p / 'fileA').write_text('hijk', append=True)
+        with (p / 'fileA').open('r') as f:
+            self.assertEqual(f.read(), 'abcdefghijk')
+
+        self.assertRaises(TypeError, (p / 'fileA').write_text, b'badbytes')
+
     def test_iterdir(self):
         P = self.cls
         p = P(BASE)