# Suggest using scalar filehandles and checking to
  # see if open succeeded...
  open( my $my_filehandle, $file ) || next;
  # possibly: || die "Can't open file: $!";

  local $/ = undef; # tell perl not to stop reading at newline
  my $file_data = <$my_filehandle>;
  close $my_filehandle;

  # process $file_data
  # etc...