$25: Cool deal on Complete New Yorker DVD set (music & movie reviews, lit, etc.)

[blessingx]

For those interested, you can get every New Yorker from 1925-2006 in PDF form on DVD till the 10th for $25.50. Just use the coupon code "COMPLETE15". You can order here. This was was going for around $100 a couple years back. For the price of a hardcover book, it's a great source of endless music and film reviews. And of course great to browse ads from the 20s and print out covers. Anyway, I've had it since the Christmas before last (gift) and it's well worth the cash. Basically the 1925-2005 issues only costs $5, as the 2006 update disc is $20 itself (which is what I just ordered as I might as well give the extra copy to my friend).

You need a Windows or OS X machine for the viewer though (initial reviews were right that it was a tad buggy, especially on the Mac, but that was fixed soon after release). Anyway you could do far worse with $25 to follow the history of Rock, Jazz, some great short-story writers, creation of some film genres, etc.

 

[DanG]

More like over $30 when you consider that it's $25.50 plus tax and shipping... it's too bad they don't actually offer 1925-2005 for $5 because that I would consider buying.

 

[blessingx]

For clarity, shipping ($5) and tax ($2.52) to CA came to $33.01 total.
And for comparison a single year of the print subscription tends to be $40-47 with a educator/student price of $30, plus possible tax. And for those unfamiliar this is a weekly publication (47 issues a year with 5 double-issues). Needless to say for the years 1925-2006 there's a ton of copy to have fun with.

 

[Agent Kang]

Thanks for the heads up. I'm definitely buying this.

 

[blessingx]

Just keep in mind the price is good only through tomorrow.

 

[Agent Kang]

Bah. Total comes to 43USD for me due to int'l shipping. Should I still pull the trigger?

 

[kerelybonto]

The site says the DVDs are "highly searchable," but in the virtual tour it looks like you can only search by title, author, year, abstract, keyword, etc. In other words, only by information (metadata) that the editors taken the time to enter about each article.

This suggests that the text of the articles themselves is not fully searchable -- that it's not a "searchable" PDF (i.e., one where the displayed vector text actually has ASCII text associated with it and is not merely an image). Do you know whether this is really the case? This would be much more valuable to me if it were fully searchable -- even if not in the included viewer than with the OS's search tools or other software like Google's.

 

[blessingx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Agent Kang /img/forum/go_quote.gif Bah. Total comes to 43USD for me due to int'l shipping. Should I still pull the trigger?

It's your call, but that's still half of what mine cost last '05. Looks like on the 11th it will go back up to $60 before taxes and s/h.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kerelybonto /img/forum/go_quote.gif The site says the DVDs are "highly searchable," but in the virtual tour it looks like you can only search by title, author, year, abstract, keyword, etc. In other words, only by information (metadata) that the editors taken the time to enter about each article. This suggests that the text of the articles themselves is not fully searchable -- that it's not a "searchable" PDF (i.e., one where the displayed vector text actually has ASCII text associated with it and is not merely an image). Do you know whether this is really the case? This would be much more valuable to me if it were fully searchable -- even if not in the included viewer than with the OS's search tools or other software like Google's.

No, it's not text searchable, but I'll guess why that's the case (though others please correct me if I'm wrong). There were a few lawsuits about authors royalties with "new markets". And sometimes a split seems to come down to photo-reproduction of the book/newspaper/magazine versus the content itself. My guess is this collection at this price and at this time was only possible with image-based reproductions (as you can see on the above screen-shot it's a page by page copy - ads and everything). If they had to pay new royalties or get permissions from old writers, cartoonists, photographers, etc. estates the project may not have happened or at least not this cheap. To be honest I haven't ran into too many problems, but then again I just search on artist or writer usually. And often it is browsing. I remember I once came across a cool Gillian Welch & David Rawlings article when looking for Art Spiegelman cartoons after coming across one the day before while reading a George Saunders short story. Where this text issue could come into play also though is if you wish to "borrow" content to email to a friend, etc. Copy and paste is out. In that since your options of print to PDF (built into OS X or with Acrobat) or MS Office Document Image Writer (Windows Office) is possible. The nice thing is the scans are decent resolution so easily legible. This package is far from perfect, but you don't have another option for this content and IMO the amount of it you get for this price is well worth the inconveniences.

 

[blessingx]

Well for whatever it's worth, it seems the sale is still on, minus the coupon code. So $29.99 plus s/h. Still a great deal.

 

[redshifter]

I want to buy this for my Mom (& me), but I do not think her Mac classic has a DVD drive.

Maybe I'll throw in a laptop too.

 

[mcmyers]

Thank you so much for alerting us to this, Blessingsx. I just bought one. For my job, (I do biographical research about writers and artists for a public radio show) I often use New Yorker articles, but the only ones available to me through magazine databases are those from the last decade or so. This will make my life so much easier.

Awesome!

 

[ken36]

Good deal for the cartoons alone.

 

[redshifter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ken36 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Good deal for the cartoons alone.

If you have the cash they also have the complete cartoons (or drawings) in a huge coffee table book. I have one and it also comes with the same cartoons on CD roms.

 

[blessingx]

Yeah, looks like the Complete Cartoons is at the moment the same price. It may be better organized for cartoon browsing, and looks like a real nice book, then again it's one DVD versus eight and all the cartoons should be in the other collection.

I wonder if they're readying a Complete New Yorker new edition? Since the years run April to April, there may be a 2007 version coming and the reason for this discount, though it will likely be double the price and possibly triple. Either way an updated disk (should you want the new issues) should be cheaper than the new price on the Complete collection.

 

[redshifter]

They should put out editions for iPod.