diff --git a/src/HAB/Pica/Reader/PicaNormReader.php b/src/HAB/Pica/Reader/PicaNormReader.php
index 2f78c93faeb2642a780bed3608f5b2e9f78a0075..14590598815afeefb3d0f3263dc3194e6ddf505e 100644
--- a/src/HAB/Pica/Reader/PicaNormReader.php
+++ b/src/HAB/Pica/Reader/PicaNormReader.php
@@ -109,6 +109,10 @@ class PicaNormReader extends Reader
         $this->stream         = $stream;
         $this->bufferSize     = 0;
         $this->bufferPosition = 0;
+        // Skip over preceeding whitespace
+        while (!ctype_alnum($this->getc(true))) {
+            $this->getc();
+        }
     }
 
     /**