do you keep notes as you research if you write it down or highlight or things like that you can add an extra pass through your brain and it might stick quite a bit harder  i like reading books about my subjects of interest but i also write in the books and i deface them with more notes and answers to questions i had about parts and who they came from to give them social context  change how you research so its less passive become part of it  it keeps me from going nuts with the exact same problem and i only figured it out in my early 20s