I have a horrible memory when it comes to the detail of books, movies, etc. (But thankfully I can remember what I've coded, or else I'd probably be out of a job.)

I mostly read non-fiction. To improve my recall over the past 7 years, I type up notes as I read. It's made the process of reading much slower, but it has helped when I've needed to recall some example or detail or framework of a book.

I did this (selfishly) for myself, but decided to upload my notes at https://github.com/mgp/book-notes. (Shameless plug I suppose?) The README explains exactly how I take the notes – but essentially there's no shortcut. I have my text editor open and simply type notes as I read.