diff --git a/install b/install
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..0785700
--- /dev/null
+++ b/install
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+# check for unzip before we continue
+if [ ! "$(command -v unzip)" ]; then
+  echo 'unzip is required but was not found. Install unzip first and then run this script again.' >&2
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+_fetch_sources(){
+  wget -O /tmp/nanorc.zip https://github.com/scopatz/nanorc/archive/master.zip
+  mkdir -p ~/.nano/
+
+  cd ~/.nano/ || exit
+  unzip -o "/tmp/nanorc.zip"
+  mv nanorc-master/* ./
+  rm -rf nanorc-master
+  rm /tmp/nanorc.zip
+}
+
+_update_nanorc(){
+  touch ~/.nanorc
+      
+  # add all includes from ~/.nano/nanorc if they're not already there
+  while read -r inc; do
+      if ! grep -q "$inc" "${NANORC_FILE}"; then
+          echo "$inc" >> "$NANORC_FILE"
+      fi
+  done < ~/.nano/nanorc
+}
+
+_update_nanorc_lite(){
+  sed -i '/include "\/usr\/share\/nano\/\*\.nanorc"/i include "~\/.nano\/*.nanorc"' "${NANORC_FILE}"
+}
+
+NANORC_FILE=~/.nanorc
+
+case "$1" in
+ -l|--lite)
+   UPDATE_LITE=1;;
+ -h|--help)
+   echo "Install script for nanorc syntax highlights"
+   echo "Call with -l or --lite to update .nanorc with secondary precedence to existing .nanorc includes"
+   exit 0
+ ;;
+esac
+
+_fetch_sources;
+if [ $UPDATE_LITE ];
+then
+  _update_nanorc_lite
+else
+  _update_nanorc
+fi