The book I always wanted to write

"Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy"

I admit I have read only the review in The Economist, but it seems that this book is spot on. Modern societies tend to deify hedonic happiness. Recently, they even made some inroads in economics with the new paradigm of behavioral economics that assumes that happiness is the ultimate target in an individual's life.

Well, as I have discussed here, there must be a reason that no great men, from artists to emperors was "happy". It is because achievements come not through happiness, but through struggle and pain. It is the Maslowian self-actualization that drives all these people, a concept that is fundamentally different to happiness.