Discussing and Remembering Dewey

[Maw Books]

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.

[Florinda]

We exchanged e-mails about this yesterday, and I agree with Natasha's reply above - if you're up to it, I don't think anyone would object to your taking the lead in continuing the Bookworms Carnival. I'd still be available to help with it if needed, though.

[Renay]

When I suggested to Dewey that she make the carnival twice a month, I was also trying to convince her to move it to its own independent blog on her domain and "hire" assistants because it was starting to overwhelm her. We never managed to finish our discussion about it. :(

The general idea behind the independent blog was that she could have helpers and if those helpers ever got bogged down or got busy, it would be easy to find new ones. Therefore, the responsibility could be shifted about but the home base would never have to change--like adding/subtracting new team members to a group blog?

Anyway, since you're the go-to person for carnival stuff, please think of me while deciding your next move. The carnival is how I met Dewey back in spring 2007 and how we became friends. I would really, really love to be a part of it.

[Maw Books]

I think running it on it's own blog would be great, especially since it would be posting fairly frequently with two carnivals a month. Having it's own blog also lends itself to multi-administrator more easily.

[Rebecca Reid]

I agree. It seems odd to me for one person to take over. Like stepping on toes, since it was a part of everyone.

Of course, there does need to be a main go to person.

[bethany (dreadlock girl)]

Great ideas everyone! I'd be glad to help out :)

[Meghan]

I agree with many of the ideas posted. As I said on your blog, Natasha, I'd be really happy to help out with the next Read-a-thon or the Read-a-thon blog. I don't think I'm clever enough to come up with Weekly Geeks stuff, but from seeing everyone else do it over the past few months I think it could handle having its own blog too.

I sort of think Dewey's own site should be left as is, and we can continue her many projects on new blogs/a blog or on our own.

[Rebecca Reid]

I agree Meghan. Dewey's site was Dewey's. And we should continue her traditions, but not cross over and take over her site.

[Trish Collins]

I replied to one of the comments below, but just to make this a separate comment...

The read-a-thon is covered. The three co-hosts that Dewey has had the past two read-a-thons have agreed to continue hosting it. It's a huge undertaking, but Dewey certainly left us with a great foundation!

*sigh* I'm going to miss her so much.

[Maw Books]

I knew Dewey had a lot of help with the read-a-thon and I secretly wished that they would continue with it. So THANK YOU!!!!

[Amy]

lol, me too. :) Good to know.

[Heather]

What about a special edition of the 24-hour-read-a-thon in her memory, but also with any charity readers giving to a fund for the library memorial? I know a lot of readers read for charity in the last one; I'd be willing to read for her.

[Terri]

Great ideas, everyone. Raych suggested the button earlier today; I just did a very rough draft of one, see what you think.

It will need to be smaller I think which might make the text hard to read. Again, this is very rough just a prototype. I think someone else was going to work on a button too... now I don't remember who.

Good to have this place where we can all coordinate stuff.