you know I did try a few times. She is very withdrawn. I believe she lives her life thru books & the characters in them. Never know the things in her life that made her this way. We dont' have a lot in common still but for old times sake I check in with her now & then. Our parents were friends/neighbors for years & hers are both dead & just my mom remains. I know her mom was not an active /outdoorish person & considered me a tomboy (true). Maybe she just felt it wasn't lady like etc to walk on the edge of life a bit. Like I said we are note close & the few times we went out to dinner the conversations were NOT about personal matters/life. If I would try to get there, they conversation quickly went elsewhere.
Could be just the way her brain was built. Like Laura Bush, she derives a great deal of pleasure from reading. I do, too.
The world of ideas is compelling. It isn't just fantasy escape. Books wouldn't be as compelling if they didn't hinge their plots or themes on fascinating ideas or times or places to explore. I'm don't particularly like romance novels, for instance. The last book I read was Freakonomics and it was fun, because it brought up new ideas.
It may be that your friend is just too shy to discuss ideas with other people (they are too critical of the ideas perhaps), and that is why she revels in ideas privately.
There may be someone out there like her that could share her mental world.
Maybe before you go out again you could ask her to recommend a book, and then let her take the lead in discussing it, just mostly listening after you read it and meet her, to find out more about her.
Just an off the wall idea here. I'm curious about her now.