It is one of the world's most prestigious book festivals, appearing every year in Edinburgh's Charlotte Square gardens as an oasis of literature, discussion, poetry and discussion with a cast of the world's leading writer and thinkers.
But this August, Edinburgh's International Book Festival to expand across the country for the first time.
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As the annual festival (EIBF) takes place in Edinburgh, there will also be simultaneous satellite events in three locations across the country - in Galashiels, in Greenock and in Aberdeen.
These events, under the title of Booked!, will bring a series of authors in the towns and cities, in an expansion partially funded by People's Postcode Lottery funding.
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Each two-day festival will, as in Edinburgh, involve authors, artists and thinkers as well as a series of education and outreach events.
The Booked! project is also due to expand in the coming two years, with, from later this year, events planned for Scotland's New Towns, including events planned for Glenrothes, Livingston, East Kilbride, Irvine and Cumbernauld.
Janet Smyth, the children and education programme director of the EIBF and organiser of the Booked! strand said it is a concerted effort for the festival to move beyond its traditional bounds in the heart of Edinburgh.
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"It is about bringing that August experience in Charlotte Square, to other part of Scotland and it is also about the juxtaposition of the international and the national with the very local," she said.
"These are full programmes with international writers and in every one we are working in collaboration with a local partner.
"This year's Booked! is a little bit of a pilot - our plan is to widen it."
An early, similar event took place in Falkirk's Callendar House earlier this year, called LandWords.
The Inverclyde Booked! Festival runs from Thursday 25 – Friday 26 August.
Most events will take place in the Beacon Arts Centre in Greenock but there will also be a special event in HMP Greenock as well.
In will include sessions with Jan Patience and Louise Wyllie, discussing the book Arrivals & Sailings: The Making of George Wyllie, as well as Packie Bonner and Gerard McDade talking about the footballer's autobiography The Last Line.
Pupils will meet authors and illustrators from across the UK including explorer Justin Miles, Rosalind Jana, illustrator Chris Mould and Gaelic writer Catriona Lexi Campbell.
American novelist and short story writer, Ron Rash will hold an event, as well as talk to inmates of HMP Greenock.
Ms Smyth added: "We are delighted to be working with the Beacon Arts Centre and Inverclyde Libraries in Greenock as it links beautifully with our Edinburgh Book Festival theme of Migrations.
"So many Scots left our nation for a new life from this port and together we wanted to explore how that shapes a place and its people.
"Over two days we‘ll take over the Beacon marrying our visiting international and UK authors with great local writers and musicians to create a warm and relaxing festival vibe."
The Galashiels festival will take place August 23/24 at the MacArts Centre and will include Linda McLean talking about her take on Alice Munro's The View from Castle Rock, which is being staged at the main festival in Edinburgh.
Borders author Dorothy Alexander will be discussing her new book The Mauricewood Devils, a semi-fictionalised account about a Borders mine disaster in 1889 that left 62 men dead.
Aberdeen's Booked! will run from August 29 to 30 and will take place in the ACT Centre in the city.
It will feature, among other events, the best selling crime writers James Oswald and Gunnar Staalsen talking about their new novels.
The Unbound event, a version of the nightly cabaret held during Edinburgh International Book Festival, will feature local writer Wayne Pric as well as Allan Burnett, Peter Arnott, Helen Lynch and Shane Strachan.
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