I must have been ten or twelve, in 1945 or -46 when I became a SF fan, not knowing anything of these terms. I got E.R. Burroughs'
novel A Martian Princess as Christmas present (as a Finnish translation of course). I had read some Verne and Wells before,
not being very impressed. But for E.R.B. my age was just perfect. I had not known that anybody could write like that!
When I grew older, the magic of E.R.B. began soon to fade. And I realized how few and how lousy the Finnish translations were.
I taught myself to read English. I begun to be theoretically interesred. There was no net, nor fan clubs I knew about. But there
were magnificent books to obtain: William Atheling Jr. Damon Knight, Alexei Panshin . . .
I have a valuable book: *The Ultimate Guide to Science Fiction* by David Pringle, (Pharos Books 1990). The cover text says:
“DESCRIPTIONS, REVIEWS, AND RATINGS OF OVER 3,000 BOOKS!!!!!”, and for once it doesn’t lie. If you can find a copy, catch
it, bearing in mind that you don’t have to agree with Mr. Pringle’s ratings, which have a strong bias for British “New Wave” of 1960′s.
The books listed run from Classics like Verne and Wells up to late 1989. Leafing through the book you can see what a wide selection
was in classic times accepted as legitimate subgenres of SF.
Don't trust what the net tells you -- not even wikipedia! I am your window to the glorious past! Ask me!