Megha Singh

What's something that instantly tells you someone reads books.

The best classics of all time.

The three most influential writers of every century:

16th century
William Shakespeare
Miguel de Cervantes
Michel de Montaigne

17th century
John Milton
Molière
John Donne

18th century
Voltaire
Jonathan Swift
Samuel Johnson

19th century
Leo Tolstoy
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Charles Dickens

20th century
George Orwell
Virginia Woolf
Gabriel García Márquez

21st century
J.K. Rowling
Haruki Murakami
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

This is my selection based on literary influence, cultural impact and enduring readership.

Who deserves to be replaced? And which writer have I criminally left out?

why does literary greatness seem to require so much suffering? can't a book be profound, intellectually stimulating and life-changing without leaving me emotionally devastated by the last page?

One of the loveliest things you can do for a reader is let them talk about a book without immediately asking whether it's worth reading. Let them explain the fictional character they miss, the sentence they underlined, or the ending they haven't stopped thinking about. Sometimes a book lover just wants someone to listen.