Near Future Shelf

In the course of organizing the office I have designated a shelf on a bookcase near my desk for books I'm hoping to read in the near future. This is a huge delusion. So far there are 27 books on the shelf, I could probably add more though I realize the madness of having even 27 books there. I always wanted to be able to read a book a week, though I've never managed that velocity for more than a month or two at a time. Even at this ridiculously implausible speed it would take me 6 months to get through those books.

To add to the insanity only one of the 27 is what would be considered a quick fictional novel. Among the rest are 2 1000+ page historical novels, 7 straight history books, 2 pop-math books, 2 books of punditry/opinion, 6 pseudo textbooks, 3 biographies, 2 business books, and 2 miscellaneous books ("Dangerous Book for Boys" and "Areas of My Expertise"). Just eyeballing things I would guess that average page count is at least 600 if not more... *sigh*

A friend of mine ran into some financial problems and there is a slim chance he could end up on the street. Obviously when I heard this I was sympathetic, but part of me was jealous. Obviously being on the street with a wife and four kids is out of the question, but if it was just me... I think I could survive without too much trouble, and if there was even a tiny chance of spending all day every day in the library reading, suddenly you have the jealousy... I confess it's unrealistic, but isn't it beautiful nonetheless?

How did it get to be so late?