>Instead I had things to talk about related to the books I had just been browsing
Ironically, it still required external ideas/stimulus to come up with topics of conversation. I was expecting the OP would say it gave them time to reflect, or be present to himself! One could just as easily browse books/news on a phone that would be of mutual interest for a coming conversation. There is some sort of "curation" that goes on in the bookstore, but nothing that couldn't be provided by software.