# Elements by Euclid by Oliver Byrne

17 Hacker News commenters recommended Elements by Euclid by Oliver Byrne and 9 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 8 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Recommended for its beautiful, colour-diagram presentation of Euclid's geometry proofs and its clear logical rigor. The most common caveat is the old-style long s typography, which some find distracting.

## Why people recommend it

- Beautiful, striking book design (5 comments): "they completed the rest of the books in the style and published it in hardcover" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48255880)) "The reprint of the Byrne edition of Euclid is the most beautiful book I have" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46895979)) "This is looking really beautiful!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46912755))
- Enjoyable to work through proofs (2 comments): "Going through each proof in Euclid's Elements again has been a lot of fun" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46007757)) "it has certainly been a joy to work through them again in my retirement" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47209636))

## What people warn about

- Long s typeface is distracting (5 comments): "Yeah, why bother updating the diagrams but then do long s throughout?" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48254062)) "For me it iſ the old timey eſſ that iſ moſt diſracting." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48253697)) "distracting long "ſ"es of Oliver Byrne's editions" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46423261))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Fermat's Last Theorem by Simon Singh](https://hackerapproved.com/p/fermat-s-last-theorem.md): 11 recommend
- [Gödel's Proof by Nagel and Newman](https://hackerapproved.com/p/g-del-s-proof.md): 10 recommend
- [Principia Mathematica by Whitehead and Russell](https://hackerapproved.com/p/principia-mathematica.md): 10 recommend
- [Mathematica: A Secret World of Intuition and Curiosity by David Bessis](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mathematica-a-secret-world-of-intuition-and-curiosity.md): 9 recommend
- [Exploring Mathematics with Python by Arthur Engel](https://hackerapproved.com/p/exploring-mathematics-with-python.md): 8 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0665590954?tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Bookshop.org](https://bookshop.org/a/130825/9780665590955) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Elements by Euclid by Oliver Byrne", https://hackerapproved.com/p/elements-of-euclid/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).