One weird thing I’ve noticed is when I think I’ve forgotten something from my reading, it magically comes back to me if I’m having a discussion related to what I read in the past. Of course I don’t remember word-for-word lines, but I remember the gist, it just takes time to recall because you can’t regurgitate chapters of a subject on command. Technical books are an entirely different matter and requires lots of repetition and notetaking, as well as doing.