When I started college in 1999 I remember talking to cute girls at a party when we were both there to socialize, not on the bus interrupting her book to find out what she was reading.
Yes. I remember talking to people at parties as well when we were both there to socialize.
Maybe you have trouble meeting people when you're not formally introduced is the issue.
I didn't really tend to ask people what they were reading unless they had clearly stopped reading. I guess that was a bad aspect of that post. But when people have headphones on they never take them off at all. People do put books down occasionally and stop reading however.
Maybe your friends suck