Working my way through theory and wondering if Kapital is worth what seems to be a monumental effort. I kind of just look at it now like, "I already agree ideologically, and a complex economic argument will probably be lost on me."
So is there an upside to reading (at least parts of) the text that I'm missing out on?
You should read it at some point, it underpins the bulk of theory. Maybe it was the specific translation that I had, but in my experience it wasn’t a difficult, academic process to get through. Also you really only need to read volume 1. Anyone who says they have read 2 & 3 are weasely little liars
Do you happen to remember the translation or the version you read?
I’ll actually go ahead and say just get the Penguin version.
The reason is not because it’s the best or anything, but that it’s the most widely used. If you want to read some introductions along with it, or read some commentary of Capital, or watch some lectures or anything, they will always use the Penguin version for translation, page numbers etc.
You can read other translations afterwords if you want. But the Penguin one has the largest amount of “support” material and basically every academic who cites Capital in their own work used it too.