Is “Reading strong” a popular alternative to “Read a lot more”?

NPR (October 23) reported that 8 in 10 Americans under the age of 30 have read a book in the past year in comparison to about 7 in 10 adults in general, American adults under the caption “America's Facebook generation is reading strong.”

I don’t think I’ve head “He / she reads strong,” or “He / she is a strong reader” very often.

OALED shows “strong” as the adjective to mean “great in number” in its 14th definition from the top – 1. having a great power.

Is “Read strong” a popular way of saying “Read a lot (or hard)”? Can I say “listen to strong,” “Write strong,” or “eat / drink strong,” by the same token?

NOAD says the phrase going strong means "continuing to be healthy, vigorous, or successful," with a usage example of "the program is still going strong after twelve episodes." Macmillan defines it as "successful or healthy, and doing well", with these two examples:

The company's going strong and we expect to do even better next year.
My grandmother's 95 and still going strong.

It's interesting that two of the three dictionary examples have the word still, as many of Xantix's example above also have. That's often the sentiment conveyed: it's now past the time you thought something would have faded into obscurity, yet it continues to endure. In the case of the NPR article, some might be surprised to find the Facebook generation – obsessed with 160-character texts and 140-character tweets – would be hardy readers of those old-fashioned relics we call books, yet statistics show that that generation is reading strong.

I think that the "going" in "going strong" can be replaced with other "-ing" verbs, and the expression retains the same meaning, although in a more localized sense. So, the only way to make, say, listening strong "work" would be to devise a context where it seems surprising that some particular person or audience was still actively listening. One possibility might be:

Even though Lawrence Welk has been dead for 20 years, his show continues to be aired on PBS, and his fans are still listening strong.

Although I'd also agree with Bill Franke's comments above: the expression should be used sparingly, as it could easily be overused, and oftentimes there are probably better ways to convey the same sentiment:

Even though Lawrence Welk has been dead for 20 years, his show continues to be aired on PBS, with a band of faithful listeners tuning in each week.

I have only seen this construction with the "-ing" form of a verb.

A sentence like:

I started singing yesterday, and I am still singing strong.

means that even though time has passed from when I started to sing, I am not now singing in a weak fashion.

So with regards to:

"America's Facebook Generation is reading strong."

The "strong" could mean either:

• Individual readers have not weakened in the reading skills.
• Taken as a group, people are still reading in large numbers. (i.e. the Generation has not weakened in quantity of reading performed).

It would not be taken as meaning:

• The group is reading strong (hard) books such as "A Tale of Two Cities" or other classics.

You can use this with other verbs in the "-ing" form, for example:

The party ends at four in the morning, till then, everyone will be dancing strong.

With the election still a couple of weeks away, the candidates are campaigning strong.

Even though she lost control of most of her muscles, she is still eating strong.

Notwithstanding his brush with death, Lance Armstrong is living strong.

Strong has according to OED 1 a history dating back to the 10th century of use as an adverb, in (apparently) the same wide range of senses as the adjective, and in both colloquial and formal contexts.

This use is not common today (I should guess it has been repressed by the schoolmarms); but it has survived in some idiomatic phrases; here are a few:

• Still going strong –of a person or machine, continuing to act with his/her/its wonted effect and efficiency. This one in particular is ‘strong’ enough to be extended to other verbs: still writing strong, still playing strong. (However, it's usually used of professional and public activities, not personal ones like eating.)
• Come on strong –to express oneself boldly or rashly in the attempt to make a strong first impression
• Pitch it strong –to make bold and unsubstantiated claims.

If I were charitable I would suggest that NPR's headline demonstrates a laudable historic sense of language and an admirable indifference to schoolmarmish strictures. I'm fond of NPR; but I don't believe it. I think this is just an awkward adaptation of still going strong, with the (to my ear) integral still omitted. But what the hey, it's only a headline.

I also think that pointing to the fact that "8 in 10 Americans under the age of 30 have read a book in the past year" as evidence that "America's Facebook Generation is reading strong" is, to say the least, pitching it rather strong.