Start from page 1 and iterate from there.

So to learn those 1000 pages is to, to some extent, learn a core set of techniques across many different contexts. It compresses the required mental load. For the exceptions to that rule, well, you can skim over them and know enough about them to recognize their applications later.

I disagree. Or rather, I think that's unsustainable. Any given three consecutive pages from Spivak's Calculus are probably doable on a daily basis. But is would be legitimately hard for most people to go through three pages of Rudin's Principles of Mathematical Analysis each day and consistently retain that information. Axler's Linear Algebra Done Right is very readable, but Halmos' Finite-Dimensional Vector Spaces will start getting just as dense as Rudin. These are difficult textbooks even when students are well-prepared for them with prerequisite courses. Terence Tao wrote two books to cover (with better exposition) what Rudin did in one. I think it would be pretty hard to read consistently three pages of Tao's Analysis I each day, before he even gets to limits.

I think you're underestimating the intellectual effort here. In my opinion, even if you're reading a math book targeted to your level, committing to reading and understanding three days of material each day would become exhausting. A typical semester is 15-16 weeks, with lectures 1 - 3 times a week, and most undergraduate courses do not actually work through the entirety of a 300 page textbook. Even at that slower pace it's not typical for most people to ace the course. If you read three pages a day and had a solid understanding of it, you'd be absolutely breezing through math courses.

In my experience students need to really step away from the material and let it percolate for a bit every so often in order to solidify their understanding. I really don't think you can partition the material into equal, bite-sized amounts each day. The learning progression doesn't tend to be that consistent or predictable.

  So we shall now explain how to read the book. 
  The right way is to put it on your desk in the day, below your pillow in the night,
  devoting yourself to the reading,
  and solving the exercises till you know it by heart.

Then when someone mentions a term from the course, you know roughly what to expect and where to find details. Also, you know how big a bite you're taking. "Quantum Mechanics" might be several books. "Vector Calculus" maybe a few chapters. "De Morgan's laws" maybe a few pages.

It's just like any other math you do. Does anyone memorize all the trig relations, Laplace transforms, and geometric relations? Of course not. But you've seen at least one large example of every topic and you can reconstruct it from there.

It could be an entire book, though :)