What I'm reading about Orbán and Hungary, a postwar noir spy thriller set in ruined Frankfurt, and more
Roundup 04/20/2026
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:
What I’ve been reading about the defeat of Viktor Orbán in Hungary last week;
more articles, essays, columns, about the rediscovery of the Hardy Boys by a right-wing press, a new form of sophisticated A.I. plagiarism, and social media’s “scam age”;
a great, historically fascinating postwar spy noir filmed on location in ruined Germany; and
four tracks I’ve been listening to a lot.
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Now, the roundup:
