Library / Personal
Mahjong
Rules, strategy, and the Singapore variant specifically.
Why this shelf
A game held together by convention rather than documentation, which is exactly why writing it down is interesting.
Book
The Complete Book of Mah-Jongg — A. D. Millington, 1977
The classical rules set out with the seriousness usually reserved for chess. The reference point every regional variant is a departure from.
Best door inBook
The Book of Mah Jong — Amy Lo, 2001
The clearest explanation of hands and scoring I have found, and the closest in spirit to how the game is actually played around here.
Book
The Great Mahjong Book — Jelte Rep, 2007
History, variants, and the game’s odd journey through the twentieth century. It explains why no two tables agree on anything.
Book
The Red Dragon & West Wind — Tom Sloper, 2007
A careful comparison of the American and Asian games. Useful precisely because it refuses to treat either as the real one.
- American Mah Jongg for Everyone
Book
American Mah Jongg for Everyone — Gregg Swain & Toby Salk, 2014
The variant furthest from mine, which makes it the most instructive. Seeing which rules were changed reveals which ones were load-bearing.
- Riichi Book I
Book
Riichi Book I — Daina Chiba, 2016
Japanese riichi strategy done quantitatively — expected value, defence, and when to fold. The most rigorous strategic writing in any mahjong tradition.
- Mahjong: A Chinese Game and the Making of Modern American Culture
Book
Mahjong: A Chinese Game and the Making of Modern American Culture — Annelise Heinz, 2021
The social history. It turns out a tile game can carry a surprising amount of the twentieth century’s argument about who belongs where.
- 136 Ready-to-Use Mahjong Tactics
Book
136 Ready-to-Use Mahjong Tactics — Kurono Senba, 2025
Tactical patterns rather than principles. The kind of book that only makes sense once you have lost enough hands to recognise the situations.
Rules
How this shelf is kept
- Nothing is here because it is famous. Several famous things are deliberately absent.
- Every entry carries one line in my own words on why it matters. No publisher blurbs.
- Every shelf names its best door in for a newcomer.
- Anything superseded is removed, not archived.
Nearby