Any Non-'Beginner' books out there?

[MashMashy]

Whitney\'s Handbook is great for turning a complete new player into a \'discard-based-on-better-waits-for-fast-hands\' offensive player, and \'that 8 is safe so maybe this 5 is\' defensive player:

which I consider \'one step above complete beginner\'.
- 568 ditch 8
- 12 vs 57 ditch 12 since 57 can become 45 or 78
.. and the like

Osamuko has a suji reading example.

Is there ANYTHING out there for players that are this far?

Jen\'s Book was much more beginner-based than I had expected - especially coming from a pro who had her own parlor at one time.

Is there anything? Or are we all stuck watching 1800+ Tenhou games and trying to glean info from there?

[WorTeX]

If there was a book, it\'s probably in japanese. Not really much mahjong literature involving strategy guides :(

[Tom Sloper]

Lots of books in Japanese and Chinese. None in English.

[Johnstonjamese]

I\'ve searched a bunch.... the closest thing you can get if you don\'t speak japanese is to get one of the \"What would you discard\" books and just look at the answers.

[Gamegrunt]

Given that you can\'t even buy a decent Japanese set that is distributed in the U.S., it is no wonder that strategy books in English would be so few. Perhaps Jenn is writing her follow-up book for intermediate players?

Gg

[MashMashy]

Tom! You have always helped me when it came to Mahjong.

If you could recommend ONE Japanese book - preferably one with lots of pictures and/or conciseness (i.e. \"see this? ditch the 5, because blah blah\", not \"today I went to the market and bought shoes. Who buys shoes at the market? Seriously, though, see those tiles in your hand, yeah..\" ), which would it be?

I could translate some of it. I\'ve got a friend that speaks Japanese who owes me money. :)

NOTE: Intermediate / Advanced strat only, not \'568 ditch the 8\'.

DOUBLE NOTE: Tom, what do you feel your \'skill level\' is? care to share any tips? Common sense things that us noobs might bee missing? I\'m a 2-dan oon Tenhou, but that probably doesn\'t mean a lot.. -_-

[Barticle]

Whitney\'s Handbook

I\'ve bought and/or read over a dozen English language MJ books, old and new, and hers is the best for strategy.

Monad previously collated some links to discard-reading, erm, reading which could be considered advanced strategy I guess - see this old thread. You mentioned Osamu\'s blog already but hopefully there\'s some stuff there you\'ve not seen?

[Ruro]

2dan? i think you are confusing 2kyuu with 2 dan (they are not nearly the same....)
Also on the topic of books, i have yet to find a book that is good for us mid-tier players. It\'s not a bad idea to browse the various japanese \"what would you discard\" pages and the many mahjong blogs that are associated with them (like banners and links on the side).
Also with some luck you can probably find japanese books on the jap amazon...
Also mahjong is not popular enough to have that many english books about it.

[Gamegrunt]

Mahjong may be popular enough to have books written about it, but those books tend to be devoted to the Chinese or American versions. More books devoted to Riichi will come as the game will inevitably gain more popularity, because, doggone it, it deserves more popularity!

Gg

[MashMashy]

2dan? i think you are confusing 2kyuu with 2 dan (they are not nearly the same....)

No, 2 dan is 2 dan - 460/800ish, R1718 (or 1781, I don\'t have the client on this PC)

Which "Japanese WWYD pages" are you speaking of?

Thanks for the link, Barticle! I read the Osa stuff, going through the other things now..

[Ruro]

Well like http://nnkr.jp/ it\'s not half bad as i see it and, associated with it there are many mahjong blogs, for example http://blog.livedoor.jp/biglipbabby/arc ... 21055.html this little article with a what would you discard and the reason why THAT should be discarded was pretty good.
In the near future i will try and search for some japanese books and hope that i get a somewhat easy to understand one...

[RichardK8]

Anyone bought any good Japanese strategy book?

For instance, おしえて!科学する麻雀

[Ruro]

That book Richard looks like its for total beginners. I for example have a Saki themed one. I had some high hopes when i bought it that it will include something interesting but its just a regular "about the bare basics" type of book with some pretty easy drills at the end. Books about advanced play are hard to get and expensive, not to mention that the level of kanji in them is pretty high (around 2kyuu i guess).
Some kind of a fan-translation would solve many of these problems and make the community pretty happy, but then again there isn't anyone around here who would just translate a whole book for just a heck of it.

[RichardK8]

That book Richard looks like its for total beginners.

Don't be fooled by the drawing on first page. That book is written by とつげき東北, a statistician who applied hardcore mathematical principles to Mahjong. He initially wrote 科学する麻雀. It cannot be farther to your Saki themed book.

Some kind of a fan-translation would solve many of these problems and make the community pretty happy, but then again there isn't anyone around here who would just translate a whole book for just a heck of it.

Find 5 more volunteer translators and I am in for translating a whole book, chapter by chapter, with a tool like Google Translate ToolKit or OmegaT

[mostek]

sorry if im stating the obvious but,
there are some things that you cant learn in a book. experience is the best teacher.
if possible, playing mahjong (with real people) imo is the best way to learn.
even better if money is involved.
old japanese men in particular seem have alot to say