It is a sad week within the book blogging community. Dewey from Hidden Side of a Leaf passed away this past week. To say that she leaves behind a huge void is a understatement. Not only was she a prolific reader, reviewer and blogger but she was also the founder and organizer of Weekly Geeks, the Bookworms Carnival, and the 24 Hour Read-a-Thon. And I'm sure I'm unaware of many others. We have all been influenced by her amazing energy, creative juices and bringing the community together. She was a wonderful friend. Florinda at The 3 R's: Reading, 'Riting, and Randomness perhaps summed everything up best on this well thought out post. She already has a list of bloggers willing to help.

There has been a lot of discussion on many blogs and twitter about how to cope with that loss.

Some of that discussion has included:

1 - How to best express our condolences to Dewey's family. Many of us have her address in which to send cards/packages. It's been mentioned to donate money/books to her local library, donate money to have her family plant a tree in her name, gather all the online tributes to make sure that Dewey's family doesn't miss them all, send flowers, etc.

2. - How to best carry on the amazing community building events that Dewey started. Many have already expressed interest in taking up some of these projects, includes challenges, Weekly Geeks, the 24 Hour Read-a-thon (this has gotten so big, it probably should have a dedicated blog), secret santa (with Nymeth), and the Bookworms Carnival. Dewey already had a lot of help on many of these projects so I'm sure many feel more prepared than others to step up to the plate.

3 - Raych from Books I Done Read has asked for a RIP button to place on our blogs.

4 - Keeping Dewey's husband in the loop. He mentioned that he would like to either see Dewey's blog continue or just let it rest. Either way, I think he should be in the know how.

So what now? Let's figure it out! Ideas, like to help, etc? I thought that we should get a discussion going in just one place, so it's not spread out among everybody. This certainly doesn't make me the "moderator" here. I just want to be able to talk amongst ourselves. What have I missed?

And if you're reading this discussion that get the word out and direct traffic over here. I'll set up another discussion to list links of our remembrance posts.

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Becky from Becky's Book Reviews posted about Weekly Geeks on her blog:

I was thinking that it might be nice for those bloggers who are Weekly Geeks to pay tribute to Dewey in the next week or so. To take the time to post to their blogs a "Weekly Geek" post about Dewey--maybe share their favorite posts from her site, maybe share a memory or two about participating in weekly geeks, the bookworms carnival, the 24 Hour Readathon, or one of Dewey's challenges, maybe just share a favorite memory of Dewey in general, what they'll miss most, how they'll remember her, etc. I'm going to try to post mine this Saturday--but bloggers anywhere and everywhere are encouraged to post whenever they want.

If you're interested please SPREAD the word to all your blogging friends.

Note: You wouldn't have to have been an 'official' weekly geek to join in on this. New participants joined on a weekly basis. There was always room for more then...and now.
Thanks, Natasha, for steering me here!

Eva created a lovely meme at http://astripedarmchair.wordpress.com/ on November 29th, which I was planning to dedicate to Dewey when I post mine. She said in her post that it was inspired by Dewey and Weekly Geeks. (I don't believe she knew of Dewey's death at the time that she wrote it). I was thinking that others might want to participate as a blogging tribute to Dewey--because it's the type of Weekly-Geekish activity she would have loved. A chance to get to know one another through the books that are special to us.

If anyone else wants to do it, it's called The Bookshelf Meme and it's here: http://astripedarmchair.wordpress.com/2008/11/29/the-bookshelf-meme/
Lisa Roe sent out the following email:

I know that we are all shocked and saddened by the sudden loss of favored book blogger, Dewey, from The Hidden Side of the Leaf. If you missed the post from Dewey's husband, it is here: http://deweymonster.com/?p=1068.

Having worked with Dew in the past, I have her mailing address and would like to send a card to her family. I respect all bloggers personal information, and will not provide that address to anyone, however, if you would like to send a sympathy card to the family, you may send it to me and I will forward them on. *all materials are considered personal and private and will be forwarded on unopened* I have provided my mailing address below. Please do not share this address online or with others as this is my personal address. If you think there are others who may be interested in sending their athoughts on to Dew's family, please have them contact me. I prefer to know who has my address.

I think it would be wonderful for her family to see how loved and highly regarded Dew was to us all. I know it's a busy time for us all, but if the bulk of condolences could be sent to me within the next two weeks, I will send one large package to the family.

While we never knew her in person, we can take this opportunity to manifest our presence in her life via our favorite medium: paper and words.

wishing you well,
Lisa
--
Lisa Roe
Online Publicist
I have two thoughts on memorial. Either something related to books or something related to her illness. I think the family might actually have a preference on this (the in lieu of flowers sort of thing) If they do, I think we should honor that.

I would be glad to help with Read-a-thon and maybe even coming up with some WG ideas. As I said on your blog Natasha, I think that the Read-a-thon could have its own blog.
I'd be willing to help out wherever or however I am needed--her challenges, weekly geeks, the readathon, the carnival.

Presuming that Dewey's projects continue on--I think both the Readathon and the Weekly Geeks could have their own blogs.
I like Amy's idea for a memorial
Agree with Amy's post - we should see if Dewey's family has a preference before we donate, but I like the idea of something related to books or her library.
Thanks for getting this discussion going, Natasha! I've gotten a few volunteers as a result of the post you linked to, and will have a follow-up post on my blog later today (I'll come back and add the link). I'm linking to this discussion in that post.

My feedback says that book bloggers want to keep Dewey's events going, but no one's up for taking on any of them single-handedly, so we may be looking at creating a few spin-off groups at some point. I agree with Amy's suggestion that the Read-a-Thon might work best with its own blog, and perhaps Weekly Geeks as well (kind of like Booking Through Thursday has, maybe?).

And I'd forgotten about her challenges when I tried to list all of her events!
Moving Weekly Geeks to it's own blog is a great idea as well. Perhaps multi-author? Who were the key players in the read-a-thon besides Dewey?
Besides Dewey, it was me, Nymeth (from things mean a lot), and Hannah (wordlily). We've agreed to talk after the new year about continuing the read-a-thon. It's a HUGE undertaking, one which we're more than happy to shoulder (at least that's the feeling so far). However, with the holidays looming over us (and MY BIRTHDAY!!), we're not quite ready to discuss it. I know it will be in April; it coincides with a comic event. We'll probably start a blog devoted to the read-a-thon...but here I am getting ahead of myself!

All that to say: The read-a-thon will be covered. :-)
Yay!! Perfect! So great to see everybody on the same page here. I think we've all been talking amongst ourselves, it's good to know what's going on. So happy that it will continue on. Dewey always encouraged us to read for charity, I'd love to see the next one dedicated to her.
I wonder if we could do Weekly Geeks as a multi-author blog similar to the way Amy set up Buy Books For the Holidays? We could take turns coming up with activities. Maybe set up a yahoogroup with a calendar that would remind people when it's their turn?

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