diff --git a/README.rst b/README.rst
index e9a59f4e..5044bc4e 100644
--- a/README.rst
+++ b/README.rst
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 .. highlight:: bash
 
 What is BorgBackup?
-===================
+-------------------
 
 BorgBackup (short: Borg) is a deduplicating backup program.
 Optionally, it supports compression and authenticated encryption.
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ downloaded Borg, ``docs/installation.rst`` to get started with Borg.
 .. _installation manual: https://borgbackup.readthedocs.org/en/stable/installation.html
 
 Main features
--------------
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
 **Space efficient storage**
   Deduplication based on content-defined chunking is used to reduce the number
@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ Main features
     complete license
 
 Easy to use
------------
+~~~~~~~~~~~
 
 Initialize a new backup repository and create a backup archive::
 
@@ -114,7 +114,7 @@ Now doing another backup, just to show off the great deduplication:
 For a graphical frontend refer to our complementary project `BorgWeb <https://borgweb.readthedocs.io/>`_.
 
 Checking Release Authenticity and Security Contact
-==================================================
+--------------------------------------------------
 
 `Releases <https://github.com/borgbackup/borg/releases>`_ are signed with this GPG key,
 please use GPG to verify their authenticity.
@@ -130,7 +130,7 @@ The public key can be fetched from any GPG keyserver, but be careful: you must
 use the **full fingerprint** to check that you got the correct key.
 
 Links
-=====
+-----
 
 * `Main Web Site <https://borgbackup.readthedocs.org/>`_
 * `Releases <https://github.com/borgbackup/borg/releases>`_,
@@ -144,7 +144,7 @@ Links
 * `License <https://borgbackup.readthedocs.org/en/stable/authors.html#license>`_
 
 Compatibility notes
-===================
+-------------------
 
 EXPECT THAT WE WILL BREAK COMPATIBILITY REPEATEDLY WHEN MAJOR RELEASE NUMBER
 CHANGES (like when going from 0.x.y to 1.0.0 or from 1.x.y to 2.0.0).
diff --git a/docs/book.rst b/docs/book.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..33e75683
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/book.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+.. include:: global.rst.inc
+
+Borg documentation
+==================
+
+.. when you add an element here, do not forget to add it to index.rst
+
+.. toctree::
+    :maxdepth: 3
+
+    introduction
+    installation
+    quickstart
+    usage
+    deployment
+    faq
+    support
+    resources
+    changes
+    internals
+    development
+    authors
diff --git a/docs/conf.py b/docs/conf.py
index 8087b430..cd27d3fd 100644
--- a/docs/conf.py
+++ b/docs/conf.py
@@ -198,7 +198,7 @@ htmlhelp_basename = 'borgdoc'
 # Grouping the document tree into LaTeX files. List of tuples
 # (source start file, target name, title, author, documentclass [howto/manual]).
 latex_documents = [
-  ('index', 'Borg.tex', 'Borg Documentation',
+  ('book', 'Borg.tex', 'Borg Documentation',
    'The Borg Collective', 'manual'),
 ]
 
diff --git a/docs/index.rst b/docs/index.rst
index 89a907de..67e7a766 100644
--- a/docs/index.rst
+++ b/docs/index.rst
@@ -6,6 +6,8 @@ Borg Documentation
 
 .. include:: ../README.rst
 
+.. when you add an element here, do not forget to add it to book.rst
+
 .. toctree::
    :maxdepth: 2
 
diff --git a/docs/introduction.rst b/docs/introduction.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..ab8bd32c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/introduction.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+Introduction
+============
+
+.. this shim is here to fix the structure in the PDF
+   rendering. without this stub, the elements in the toctree of
+   index.rst show up a level below the README file included
+
+.. include:: ../README.rst