Follow Business Insider: You've seen Google's annual lists of trendy search terms, featuring things like  robin williams, world cup, and ebola , but those show only the most unusually popular terms, not the most popular terms overall.
Murasaki Shikibu is the best known writer to emerge from Japan's glorious Heian period. Her novel, The Tale of Genji (Genji-monogatari) is considered to be one of the world's finest and earliest novels. Some argue that Murasaki is the world's first modern novelist.
Mary Shelley: real-life author of the novel. Frankenstein. ; she wrote the story while on vacation with Percy Shelley (her husband) and Lord Byron (her friend) while on vacation in Switzerland; both Percy Shelley and Lord Byron became world-famous British poets. William Frankenstein: a young boy who was the creature's first victim.