Free online book "The Perversity of Things" by Hugo Gernsback - yes, the _Hugo_ awards Hugo.

This book covers Hugo Gernsback's writings from 1905 to 1932 which range in topics from scientific schematics (of the era) to musings on science fiction.  There was a reason we have the Hugo awards.  And his writing like this has something to do with it.

This quote is from one of his essays, Reasonableness in Science Fiction.

When science fiction first came into being, it was taken most seriously by all authors. In practically all instances, authors laid the basis of their stories upon a solid scientific foundation. If an author made a statement as to certain future instrumentalities, he usually found it advisable to adhere closely to the possibilities of science as it was then known.

Many modern science fiction authors have no such scruples. They do not hesitate to throw scientific plausibility overboard, and embark upon a policy of what I might call scientific magic, in other words, science that is neither plausible, nor possible. Indeed, it overlaps the fairy tale, and often goes the fairy tale one better.

He wrote this in 1932.

Link to book is here.

Also there are a lot of other interesting books here on this University of Minnesota Press’s Library of Open-Access Titles site..

• "Metagaming: Playing, Competing, Spectating, Cheating, Trading, Making, and Breaking Videogames" (link here)
• "Internet Daemons: Digital Experiences Posesseed" (link here)
• "The Geek's Chihuahua: Living with Apple" (link here)