A captivating, enigmatic, period family saga; a stunning, hand-drawn, surrealist animated masterpiece; and more
Roundup 03/17/2026 (Plus: a bonus book rec!)
Greetings from Read Max HQ, and welcome to our weekly roundup column, in which I pick out some worthwhile and often overlooked books, articles, movies, and music to recommend to paying subscribers. For this week’s round-up, I’ve got:
Two book recommendations from Ari: The first, a mysterious and beautiful family saga set in Denmark and Russia around the Russian Revolution; the second, a beloved classic that turns out to be a real page-turner.
Plus: essays and articles Max has been reading about the A.I. economy, the shadow of Tolkien in the tech industry, and contrastive corrections and other tics of L.L.M. style;
a surreally beautiful and almost indescribable post-apocalytic animated masterpiece somewhere between Jodorowsky, Tarkovsky, Moebius, Winsor McCay, Gene Wolfe, and a great JRPG; and
four tracks I’ve been listening to a lot lately.
If any of that sounds interesting--and if you want to support Read Max in its continuing mission of explaining the future to relatively normal people--please subscribe below. Subscribers get access to these weekly emails and to the comprehensive Read Max Master Lists of Good Movies to Watch and Good Books to Read--as well as preferred pricing on merchandise like the Read Max “EMAIL SUPPLY” caps. If you’re already a subscriber, thank you.
I love to hear from readers who want to recommend a cool book or movie (or whatever!) to me, or from readers who are looking for specific kinds of recommendations. Just leave a comment or drop me a line at maxread@gmail.com.
Finally, please note that I may receive a small commission if you purchase books via links in this email.
Now, the roundup:
