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.
RENAISSANCE SONNETS Poetry is generally still an adjunct profession in the Renaissance, not a primary occupation. The Renaissance poet still operates largely under the medieval notion that art is a craft. Petrarch (1304-1374) is considered the first writer of the Renaissance.