[J.Pocalypse]

I'm going to be moving soon, and I want to start building on a non-headphone system. To give you an idea of distance, I have an Ikea Jerker desk with the swiveling shelves on either side. My guess would be, that'd put speakers about 3.25' from my head. My question is, how do I determine if nearfield monitors would be best in this situation or would some active monitors or passive bookshelf speakers be better? I'm not all too concerned about brand at the moment, I just need to get the basics down.
 
Thanks in advance!