A system and method are provided for generating a virtual book from a set of electronic documentation. From the documentation, a set of topics (e.g., headings) are copied and saved, along with references to their locations in the documentation. The hierarchy of documentation topics is also recorded so that from one topic, its parent and/or children can be easily reached. The topics are classified into one or more categories (e.g., concept, task, example, reference, troubleshooting) identifying general (and/or specific) types of information. When a subject for a virtual book is received, the topics are searched for those relevant to the subject. A virtual book is then assembled to contain the relevant topics, which may be grouped by category. Within a category, topics may be listed in alphabetical order, in order of relevance, in the order they appear in the documentation or within a given book, etc.