this post was submitted on 04 Jan 2026
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Hop in, comrades, we are reading Capital Volumes I-III this year, and we will every year until Communism is achieved. (Volume IV, often published under the title Theories of Surplus Value, will not be included, but comrades are welcome to set up other bookclubs.) This works out to about 6½ pages a day for a year, 46 pages a week.

I'll post the readings at the start of each week and @mention anybody interested. Let me know if you want to be added or removed.

Week 1, January 4 - January 11, Volume 1 Chapter 1 'The Commodity'

This is the very first bookclub post, so get to know each other, ask questions about the basic premise, just keep mostly on-topic. This didn't start on January 1st because I want it to start and end on the weekend. @'ing everyone mid-Thursday probably wouldn't have gotten very many readers.

Discuss the week's reading in the comments.

Use any translation/edition you like. Marxists.org has the Moore and Aveling translation in various file formats including epub and PDF.

AernaLingus says: I noticed that the linked copy of the Fowkes translation doesn't have bookmarks, so I took the liberty of adding them myself. You can either download my version with the bookmarks added or if you're a bit paranoid (can't blame ya) and don't mind some light command line work you can use the same simple script that I did with my formatted plaintext bookmarks to take the PDF from libgen and add the bookmarks yourself. Also, please let me know if you spot any errors with the bookmarks so I can fix them!


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(These are not expected reading, these are here to help you if you so choose)


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Just joining us? You can use the archives below to help you reading up to where the group is. There is another reading group on a different schedule at https://lemmygrad.ml/c/genzhou (federated at !genzhou@lemmygrad.ml ) which may fit your schedule better. The idea is for the bookclub to repeat annually, so there's always next year.

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[–] DornerStan@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Absolutely the Reitter translation. Also has a professionally-produced audiobook.

[–] ea6927d8@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] DornerStan@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 2 weeks ago

Yep! If it's not on audiobookbay or somewhere else let me know and I can probably upload a file

[–] into_highest_invite@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

what's up with the choice of edition? does it lose the edits engels made after marx died?

[–] DornerStan@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 1 week ago

I don't remember to be honest, but there's an article or podcast interview somewhere in which the translators give their reasoning. All I remember is at the time I listened to or read it, it was convincing enough for me to buy it.

And after having read the translation itself, it's the version I recommend because of the modernized language. Older versions I had to quasi-translate nonstandard wording to understand, like rereading paragraphs and sentences a few times to actually absorb anything. Whereas this translation just flows.