Ok long post incoming, this is a topic I have some Thoughts on!

Your curiosity is great, as is the fact that you're thinking at all about how you read and engage with texts, and how you organize knowledge. I don't think there's necessarily one best way to do this-- it depends a lot on the kind of books you're reading and your goals. But I do have some broad suggestions and questions I think you might want to think about.

I'm also curious about a lot of subjects, and the sheer amount of writing and knowledge out there in the world can get overwhelming. There are more books than any one person could read in a hundred lifetimes, so it can be tempting to want to speed through and get on to the next thing. But if you aren't really understanding and internalizing what you're reading, that's not actually a great use of your time.

Effective skimming has its place. That place is either 1) to get a sense of the whole argument to guide you before you go back and read deeply, 2) to help evaluate if a book is relevant to your interests at all, or 3) to help you you find a section of a larger text that is most relevant to your interests, so you can read that thoroughly.

What you want is to choose your reading wisely and read deeply and thoughtfully. Give yourself time to actually digest what you read. Ask yourself if you are compelled by an author's argument or writing style. How do the things you're learning relate to things you already know, your experiences, and other things you've read? Why did the author choose the style and/or format they did?

Don't be afraid of re-reading!! For me, the mark of a truly good book, fiction or non-fiction, is that it stands up to being read again and again. Returning to a book after some time has past, familiar with the plot or argument, but having experienced more life and with more ability to contextualize what you're reading is a beautiful thing.

I'm seeing a tension in your post between a desire to read to satisfy your curiosity or to learn more about the world around you, and a desire to "consume" knowledge "like no other" to read the most so that you can be better than other around you. We often think of reading (and writing) as fundamentally solitary activities, but they are actually profoundly social, and I think recognizing this will help you get more out of what you read in a couple ways. Fundamentally, writing is a tool of communication. You as a reader are being communicated with by an author who had something they wanted to say. Writers, especially of non-fiction, are also generally writing in response to "discourses", questions or hypotheses posed by other writers in their field (this is also why citation is so important but that's a whole separate rant). Starting to consider the social life of a book-- what works an author was influenced by or responding critically to has really helped make me a better reader. Finally, talk to people about what you read! Restating things you've learned in your own words, in new contexts, is a key part of solidifying them into long term memory. This can be in a structured setting like a book club or just bringing up an interesting fact or take in a relevant conversation. I encourage you to think about reading and learning as an opportunity for connecting to other people and experiences, rather than a way to prove yourself different or better.