diff --git a/CHANGES.md b/CHANGES.md
index e635fbf..8f6f755 100644
--- a/CHANGES.md
+++ b/CHANGES.md
@@ -17,6 +17,8 @@
   makes it possible to distinguish between a job that explicitly returned
   `None` and a job that isn't finished yet (see `status` property).
 
+- Remove `logbook` dependency (in favor of `logging`)
+
 - Custom exception handlers can now be configured in addition to, or to fully
   replace, moving failed jobs to the failed queue.  Relevant documentation
   [here](http://python-rq.org/docs/exceptions/) and
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 18dfe05..be09e74 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,3 @@
 redis
 times
-logbook
 argparse
diff --git a/rq/scripts/rqworker.py b/rq/scripts/rqworker.py
index c870989..0b78d79 100755
--- a/rq/scripts/rqworker.py
+++ b/rq/scripts/rqworker.py
@@ -1,42 +1,44 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python
 import sys
 import argparse
-import logbook
-from logbook import handlers
+import logging
+import logging.config
+
 from rq import Queue, Worker
 from redis.exceptions import ConnectionError
 from rq.scripts import add_standard_arguments
 from rq.scripts import setup_redis
 
-
-def format_colors(record, handler):
-    from rq.utils import make_colorizer
-    if record.level == logbook.WARNING:
-        colorize = make_colorizer('darkyellow')
-    elif record.level >= logbook.ERROR:
-        colorize = make_colorizer('darkred')
-    else:
-        colorize = lambda x: x
-    return '%s: %s' % (record.time.strftime('%H:%M:%S'), colorize(record.msg))
+logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
 
 def setup_loghandlers(args):
-    if args.verbose:
-        loglevel = logbook.DEBUG
-        formatter = None
-    else:
-        loglevel = logbook.INFO
-        formatter = format_colors
-
-    handlers.NullHandler(bubble=False).push_application()
-    handler = handlers.StreamHandler(sys.stdout, level=loglevel, bubble=False)
-    if formatter:
-        handler.formatter = formatter
-    handler.push_application()
-    handler = handlers.StderrHandler(level=logbook.WARNING, bubble=False)
-    if formatter:
-        handler.formatter = formatter
-    handler.push_application()
+    logging.config.dictConfig({
+        "version": 1,
+        "disable_existing_loggers": False,
+
+        "formatters": {
+            "console": {
+                "format": "%(asctime)s %(message)s",
+                "datefmt": "%H:%M:%S",
+            },
+        },
+
+        "handlers": {
+            "console": {
+                "level": "DEBUG",
+                #"class": "logging.StreamHandler",
+                "class": "rq.utils.ColorizingStreamHandler",
+                "formatter": "console",
+                "exclude": ["%(asctime)s"],
+            },
+        },
+
+        "root": {
+            "handlers": ["console"],
+            "level": "DEBUG" if args.verbose else "INFO"
+        }
+    })
 
 
 def parse_args():
@@ -81,6 +83,7 @@ def main():
 
     setup_loghandlers(args)
     setup_redis(args)
+
     try:
         queues = map(Queue, args.queues)
         w = Worker(queues, name=args.name)
diff --git a/rq/utils.py b/rq/utils.py
index 2eef8d2..f9c4933 100644
--- a/rq/utils.py
+++ b/rq/utils.py
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ Miscellaneous helper functions.
 The formatter for ANSI colored console output is heavily based on Pygments
 terminal colorizing code, originally by Georg Brandl.
 """
+import logging
 import os
 
 
@@ -115,3 +116,34 @@ def make_colorizer(color):
     def inner(text):
         return colorizer.colorize(color, text)
     return inner
+
+
+class ColorizingStreamHandler(logging.StreamHandler):
+
+    levels = {
+        logging.WARNING: make_colorizer('darkyellow'),
+        logging.ERROR: make_colorizer('darkred'),
+        logging.CRITICAL: make_colorizer('darkred'),
+    }
+
+    def __init__(self, exclude=None, *args, **kwargs):
+        self.exclude = exclude
+        super(ColorizingStreamHandler, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
+
+    @property
+    def is_tty(self):
+        isatty = getattr(self.stream, 'isatty', None)
+        return isatty and isatty()
+
+    def format(self, record):
+        message = logging.StreamHandler.format(self, record)
+        if self.is_tty:
+            colorize = self.levels.get(record.levelno, lambda x: x)
+
+            # Don't colorize any traceback
+            parts = message.split('\n', 1)
+            parts[0] = " ".join([parts[0].split(" ", 1)[0], colorize(parts[0].split(" ", 1)[1])])
+
+            message = '\n'.join(parts)
+
+        return message
diff --git a/rq/worker.py b/rq/worker.py
index c936262..4d5c0b4 100644
--- a/rq/worker.py
+++ b/rq/worker.py
@@ -11,12 +11,8 @@ except ImportError:
 import socket
 import signal
 import traceback
+import logging
 from cPickle import dumps
-try:
-    from logbook import Logger
-    Logger = Logger   # Does nothing except it shuts up pyflakes annoying error
-except ImportError:
-    from logging import Logger
 from .queue import Queue, get_failed_queue
 from .connections import get_current_connection
 from .job import Status
@@ -29,6 +25,8 @@ green = make_colorizer('darkgreen')
 yellow = make_colorizer('darkyellow')
 blue = make_colorizer('darkblue')
 
+logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+
 
 class StopRequested(Exception):
     pass
@@ -112,7 +110,7 @@ class Worker(object):
         self._is_horse = False
         self._horse_pid = 0
         self._stopped = False
-        self.log = Logger('worker')
+        self.log = logger
         self.failed_queue = get_failed_queue(connection=self.connection)
 
         # By default, push the "move-to-failed-queue" exception handler onto
@@ -372,7 +370,7 @@ class Worker(object):
         signal.signal(signal.SIGTERM, signal.SIG_DFL)
 
         self._is_horse = True
-        self.log = Logger('horse')
+        self.log = logger
 
         success = self.perform_job(job)
 
diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index 8e76f14..73a42b3 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
 [bdist_rpm]
-requires = redis procname logbook
+requires = redis procname
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 044bf8d..6154328 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -18,7 +18,6 @@ def get_version():
 
 def get_dependencies():
     deps = ['redis >= 2.4.0', 'times']
-    deps += ['logbook']  # should be soft dependency?
     if sys.version_info < (2, 7) or \
             (sys.version_info >= (3, 0) and sys.version_info < (3, 1)):
         deps += ['importlib']
diff --git a/tests/__init__.py b/tests/__init__.py
index 09c4e4b..398d23a 100644
--- a/tests/__init__.py
+++ b/tests/__init__.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
+import logging
 import unittest
+
 from redis import Redis
-from logbook import NullHandler
 from rq import push_connection, pop_connection
 
 
@@ -47,9 +48,8 @@ class RQTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
         # Store the connection (for sanity checking)
         cls.testconn = testconn
 
-        # Shut up logbook
-        cls.log_handler = NullHandler()
-        cls.log_handler.push_thread()
+        # Shut up logging
+        logging.disable("ERROR")
 
     def setUp(self):
         # Flush beforewards (we like our hygiene)
@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ class RQTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
 
     @classmethod
     def tearDownClass(cls):
-        cls.log_handler.pop_thread()
+        logging.disable(logging.NOTSET)
 
         # Pop the connection to Redis
         testconn = pop_connection()