I'm reading a lot and have done so for many years. It is one of the great sources of joy and richness in my life. Choosing a book is more difficult than it might seem. It sounds like you haven't encountered many great books yet. Humanity has produced about 130.000.000 books and roughly 4k are added each day.
If you are an avid reader consuming one book per week from age 20 to 80, you'll get through a little more than 3000 books. Few people make it this far. 60 years of reading don't cover the output of a single day of publishing.
There are many more great books than any single person can hope to get through in a lifetime.
Regarding the reading speed: As you read more, you will get better. With enough practice, reading becomes a fully-immersive and effortless experience (though the ideas in the book might stun you!). Your eyes and your mind get more accustomed to the practice, for example through a better knowledge of vocabulary.
Forgetting is a real issue that I struggle with as well. Spaced repetition is helping a lot of people [0].
Paul Graham (pg) makes some great points about how reading shapes the mind (so even if you don't remember all the facts, the act of reading still changes who you are) [1]
I suggest you look learning strategies to process text more efficiently and to aid retention. There is a well-rated course called "Learning how to learn" on Coursera. [2]
Since selecting books is such hard work, you can benefit from the reading lists of others, here's mine on Goodreads: [3]
If you are an avid reader consuming one book per week from age 20 to 80, you'll get through a little more than 3000 books. Few people make it this far. 60 years of reading don't cover the output of a single day of publishing.
There are many more great books than any single person can hope to get through in a lifetime.
Regarding the reading speed: As you read more, you will get better. With enough practice, reading becomes a fully-immersive and effortless experience (though the ideas in the book might stun you!). Your eyes and your mind get more accustomed to the practice, for example through a better knowledge of vocabulary.
Forgetting is a real issue that I struggle with as well. Spaced repetition is helping a lot of people [0].
Paul Graham (pg) makes some great points about how reading shapes the mind (so even if you don't remember all the facts, the act of reading still changes who you are) [1]
I suggest you look learning strategies to process text more efficiently and to aid retention. There is a well-rated course called "Learning how to learn" on Coursera. [2]
Since selecting books is such hard work, you can benefit from the reading lists of others, here's mine on Goodreads: [3]
[0] http://augmentingcognition.com/ltm.html
[1] http://www.paulgraham.com/know.html
[2] https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn
[3] https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/10152457?view=table