I, in my countless encounters with women (which is to say, three and a half [that number was pulled out of thin air]) have found direct but open ended questions to be good.
Let's see . . . "how's school?"
"good"
what are you taking?
x y and z
I know a little about z . . . blah blah blah
Personally, once I get the topic on books I'm golden
With girls who, erm, aren't so interested in books (they don't exist on this campus), well, what the hell do they talk about anyway? Movies are simple enough. So is family.
The key is to have a couple clever anecdotes of your own, but get her to do the talking. Get direct as soon as you can, but leave it open-ended. There are only so many questions available about the state of the world.
Hope this helps.