Youp Van 't Hek - Columns and Books

Columns and Books

Youp has written columns on sports and later on general topics for NRC Handelsblad since 1988. Several collections of these columns have been published by Thomas Rap publishing. This company was founded by a friend of Youp, and has printed the texts of Van 't Hek's shows from the very first, unsuccessful days, when publishing them seemed a waste of money. Because of this, Youp never switched publishers. A list of the titles of his books that do not contain the texts of his shows:

Sports columns:

• Niks spel, knikkers ("Not the game, the marbles", it's the opposite of the saying: "It's not about the marbles, it's about the game", meaning that playing is more important than winning) (1989)
• Het hemd van de leeuw ("The undershirt of the lion", reference to a Dutch football song for their national team) (1990)
• Sportgek (Mad about sports) (1990)
• Floppie, Yourie en andere helden (Floppie, Yourie and other heroes) (1992)
• Eerst de man, dan de bal (First the player, then the ball) (1993)
• De selectie ("The selection"/"The squad", a compilation of his best sports columns) (1997)

General columns:

• Amah hoela (wordplay on Amah, a domestic servant, and a Dutch expression "Amehoela" or "Aan m'n hoela", meaning "no way" or "my ass") (1994)
• Ik schreeuwlelijk (I bigmouth, with bigmouth used as a verb) (1995)
• En het bleef nog lang onrustig in mijn hoofd (And my mind remained restless for a long time) (1996)
• Majesteit, (Majesty, ) (1997)
• Fax (Fax) (1998)
• Zaterdag (Saturday) (1999)
• Het zal me jeuken (literally: "it could itch me", meaning "I couldn't care less") (2000)
• Iedereen is in de war (Everybody is confused/crazy) (2001)
• 166x Youp (a compilation of his best columns) (2001)
• Het platte land (literally: "The flat land", referring to the Netherlands, when written as "platteland" it means: "countryside") (2002)
• Liegangst (Fear of lying, wordplay on Fear of flying) (2003)
• Hartjeuk en zieleczeem (Hartitch and souleczema) (2004)
• Het leven is wél leuk (Life IS fun, with the emphasis of denying that "Life sucks") (2005)
• Oelikoeli en andere goden ("Oelikoeli and other gods", Oelikoeli is a god that Youp made up. Youp is its only believer, because he says that as soon as a god has more than one believer, the believers start fighting each other) (2006)
• Youp is leuk? ("Youp is fun?", a compilation of his best columns) (2007)
• Iedereen is eigenaar van iets (Everybody is the owner of something) (2007)
• Bacteriën moeten ook leven (Bacterias have to live too) (2008)
• Omdat jij mijn beste vriend bent (Because you're my best friend) (2009)

Other books:

• Rijke meiden ("Rich girls", short stories) (1991)
• Liedjes van A tot Z ("Songs from A to Z", an alphabetically ordered collection of lyrics) (2003)
• Komen & gaan, een week scharrelen rond Gare du Nord ("Coming and going, a week of wandering around Gare du Nord", poetry) (2004)
• De wonderlijke broertjes Pim en Pietje ("The amazing brothers Pim and Pietje", children's book) (2004)
• Bob & Youp (Surprising pictures by Bob Bronshoff with Youp improvising a column on what just might be the story behind the picture) (2009)