I feel like there's a distinction between _learning something_ from reading a book and remembering plot details.
I am awful at remembering names and characters from books. I'm all good while I'm reading them, but if you asked me "What did you think of John's situation in $BookX" I would find it hard to answer. That said, it all goes into the gestalt jumble of ideas that is me.
I'll say that I mostly read comparitively low-effort fiction that people rarely "test me" on, so it possibly matters less.
I am awful at remembering names and characters from books. I'm all good while I'm reading them, but if you asked me "What did you think of John's situation in $BookX" I would find it hard to answer. That said, it all goes into the gestalt jumble of ideas that is me.
I'll say that I mostly read comparitively low-effort fiction that people rarely "test me" on, so it possibly matters less.