Register-Guard writer collects his favorite columns.

Byline: Karen McCowan The Register-Guard

Finding enough material for his eighth book was not a problem for Bob Welch. His seventh, "American Nightingale," required extensive research as far away as Boston and Europe to turn up enough information.

But his latest, ``My Oregon'' (AO Creative, 285 pages, $16.95) posed the opposite problem.

This time, Welch had to winnow nearly 600 columns he's written for The Register-Guard down to the 109 in this collection of his favorite pieces about the "people, places and passion" of his native state.

His standard? ``The columns that said, `This is what I feel about the state,' '' Welch said. ``The ones that help readers to kind of `get' Oregon.''

There are personal columns about golfing with his sons along a seven-mile stretch of Oregon coastline, or accepting a reader's challenge to go elk-hunting. Accounts of University of Oregon tailgaters, the Bach Festival and the Country Fair. Columns about famous Oregonians - and everyday ones. "The woman at Shooters Bar & Grill who gave up her kidney to a stranger? That's an Oregonian," he said.

Because this book was self-published, Welch alone chose what columns to include. He went that route after talking to fellow members of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, which has given him both its Best Humor Column and Best General Interest Column awards. They urged him to seek one-time rights from the newspaper and publish the collection himself.

"It was incredibly freeing," said Welch, whose last book, ``Nightin- gale,'' was issued by New York publishing house Simon & Schuster. ``I was the boss. ... I got to do everything myself.''

And he does mean everything. He spent hours at Kinkos, removing the newspaper's coding symbols from his downloaded columns and resetting them in a different typeface.

He also handled distribution, driving to Portland to pick up his 3,000-copy initial press run from a North Dakota printer.

``I had 10 boxes in the cab of my '95 Nissan pickup,'' he said. ``I'd planned to carry them in the bed, but it was raining and the Glad trash bags started blowing off.''

The entire operation was "totally homegrown," Welch said.

``My son's graphic design company designed the cover,'' he explained. ``And the cover photo was taken by my dad at the Oregon Coast in 1957.''

It's a shot that epitomizes ``going to the beach'' in Oregon. No bronzed sun worshipers bask in beach chairs or play sand volleyball. Instead, the toddler Welch, his grandfather, mother and sister are bundled up in coats, hats and scarves roasting marshmallows over a fire.

``This is still what I think of when I think of the Oregon Coast,'' he said. ``This miserably cold, simple scene of people being with one another.''

BOOK SIGNING

Bob Welch

When: 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Friday

Where: Waldenbooks in Valley River Center (344-9431)