If you have to remember things from spoken world only (or if books are rare), you memorize things. You get better at memorizing and your memory becomes good.
You can remember what you read but you must read properly.
It's amazing how many people don't know to how to read (non-fiction) books or take notes that make learning and remembering easy. They start from beginning and go to the end. They take notes that are neat and follow the organization of the book.
Proper active reading means that you interrogate the book. Skim and skip. ask questions, write answers, check what the books says, look at other books of the same subject, disagree. Read only first paragraphs. Go back and read again the whole chapter. Again and again. If you own the book you make notes into the book until it becomes an artifact that works as a memory aid.
If you have to remember things from spoken world only (or if books are rare), you memorize things. You get better at memorizing and your memory becomes good.
You can remember what you read but you must read properly.
It's amazing how many people don't know to how to read (non-fiction) books or take notes that make learning and remembering easy. They start from beginning and go to the end. They take notes that are neat and follow the organization of the book.
Proper active reading means that you interrogate the book. Skim and skip. ask questions, write answers, check what the books says, look at other books of the same subject, disagree. Read only first paragraphs. Go back and read again the whole chapter. Again and again. If you own the book you make notes into the book until it becomes an artifact that works as a memory aid.