Searching isn't a great way of actually retaining information. You get a very shallow understanding of the topic.

Reading books cover to cover, at least when they're well written and not full of padding, is time much better spent. And when doing so, I too prefer the ergonomics of printed books.

The idea is that you are gradually building Brain-tree indexes in your grey matter as you read it cover to cover. Whenever you need to look up something again you kinda have a vague idea where to look.

Impossible is a bit of a stretch - that both search engines and books contain an index isn't a coincidence.

Read book, take notes in your fav notetaking app (like Obsidian for exmaple) - now you have both knowledge and search.

Also the book in question is not really a manual or documentation of some sort.

In the ancient texts, there was a section called an "index" which mapped keywords to numbered pages in the text.

Ditch Amazon. Support independent publishers/bookstores.

If it is like mine, it's an unordered set.