The two facts you provide, 1. life is short and 2. books are time-consuming lead to the conclusion you should be extremely judicious about which ones you read, and not hesitant in ditching any you believe are unworthy of your time.

I'm also a slow reader; lucky to finish 10 books/year. I notice I'm a much faster reader on topics I'm familiar with.

Also, exercise aforementioned judiciousness with Sapiens; it's 400 pages of conjecture masquerading as fact.

I was really hoping this would be a list of books you had decided not to read, with short (ideally flippant) justifications. Followed, inevitably, by passionate and erudite rebuttals.