New idea for a route:
We skip bottle 2 and go up, grab scepter, then proceed normally to the library.
In the library everything goes along except we don't grab the map (we're going to get the horseshoe).
We enter the lab (use a torch), go to the fountain, take flute and ring, back out, take horseshoe, bottle 2, water.
Take key 4, open the doors (using key 4 first), take care of sphinx area (use arrow first, take blade, star, rod)
Use rod, get wand, take the coins.
This is where we diverge a little. Go use the scepter and ring, back out to the hellhound and use the water and star.
Try the sphinx magic teleport, but might not save much. Use bottle 2, wand, blade, get staff.
This is the major selling point for this route, using Humana, Illumina, and Motari without going away from the spells page.
After that, the route is pretty straight forward.
Not sure if this will be faster at all, but I wanted to work out a route that used those spells in succession.
In any case, with the current route, can we grab an extra torch, might save time on one of those page changes. I'm thinking one of the ones in the hall that leads to the wand and throne rooms. Using the extra torch later on shouldn't take up much time; the problem with grabbing a random item is that we fix the scepter/ring use, but mess with the horn/talisman use (found out when I was messing around with the idea of grabbing extra gold coins from the bag). I can't test it at the moment, but if we did grab extra gold coins, could we use them as well? That might be slower than grabbing an extra torch though.
Edit: There's a benefit in grabbing an extra torch actually, in that you can avoid the page flipping when using the orb on the staff.