The Complete Book of Mah Jongg: An Illustrated Guide to the Asian, American and International Styles of Play

Very helpful for new players

We were new to Chinese Mah Jongg, and only barely followed the American rules a long time ago, so got this as a refresher when one of our family members took up the game. And: wow! So good. It's beautifully-illustrated, with clear explanations about basic rules in a decently-paced introduction to the game, and with explanations of the most popular variations and a basic overview of strategy. Special shoutout to the typography (was it done in TeX??) which makes it quite readable, and the heavy duty end flaps which can be used as bookflaps. One of those little books that could have been done cheaply but which is, in its excellent execution, a real pleasure to own.

I wanted to find a reference on playing mah jongg, and found this book. Ms. Lo covers not only the classic 13-tile Cantonese version, but other variations as well, such as the American, Shanghai, and Taiwanese version. The book is well-illustrated to demonstrate the tile and procedures of game play preparation, and although there are some (momentarily) confusing discrepancies between some photos showing the sequence of play, they vastly simplify the accompanying text. One caveat: For the American version Ms. Lo references the American Mah Jongg Association as a source for obtaining the American game scoring cards, but it no longer is a distributor. The only options are to join the National Mah Jongg league to purchase them, or obtain them from eBay from a 3rd-party seller.

I have played Chinese Mah Jong for many years and I found this book enjoyable and informative, and easy to understand.

Explains rules well and provides some strategy. Good read while flying or at a hotel.

The book has plenty of images and covers many Mahjong variants, but the explanations aren’t very clear. My copy also arrived with part of a page missing, which was disappointing. It feels like a good book in the making, just not fully polished yet.

I am enjoying this book. It is helping me to understand Mah jong better.

Excellent introduction to Mahjong with illustrative pictures including strategy for playing.

This is a great resource for many styles of mahjong, and even though the rules aren’t exhaustive for each style, there are enough examples and instructions to get you started. My only quibble is with some edge cases that could be more explicitly explained or more hands used as examples in scoring, but well, you can’t show every possible hand. The list of courtesies is appreciated — though some are laughable for my game group, who will never observe them. I’ve used this reference to create my own group’s beginners scoring cheat sheet. Combining different scoring traditions is not generally recommended, but I wanted to give my group stepping stones to more scoring opportunities without overwhelming them from the jump. This book really helped with that.

Personably like this book very much, very easy to read and go along with other players wherever you are.

Bought this to (re) learn how to play the game and for this the book is ideal. Takes you through the basics and the rules for Cantonese, Taiwanese, Hong Kong and American versions of the game. We play Cantonese rules and the book takes you through setting up the seats for the 4 players, making and breaking the rules and the basic strategies of the game. Also gives some examples of winning hands, at the moment we are playing Cantonese rules with the “People’s” (simplified) game scoring rules, until we have worked through the complexities of fans etc. All in all a great book to get you up and running and enjoying this great game.

Great book! Covers different types of Mah Jongg with great pix. Very helpful.

Good book but a little complex to muster