You can't keep the lid on this story of a simple product

Welcome to world of peel, pinch, pucker and puncture coffee lids, nor forgetting mouth comfort, sealable coupling, rotational closures, slosh drainage and sip holes. Individually these lids are very disposable and not worth a second thought but like many other throw away objects, paper clips or safety pins for example, gathered together they become fascinating because of the different designs. The two authors have a collection of over five hundred lids and several dozen are presented life-size in these pages.
　
I thought it interesting that this is not a product sold to the public (and therefore doesn't need constant cosmetic changes to sell newer versions) but to the catering and beverage industry and has produced so many variations on a basic idea. There are four types of lid that either require a peel, pinch, pucker and puncture, pinch seems the least successful type with only two styles included, pucker types, where the user drinks from the lid rather than the rim of the cup, seems the most popular lid with lots of variations, including on page 182 a white lid with a small, bright red slider bar to open and close the drinking hole.

The book is almost square and hand friendly with 185 black and white pictures (plus fifteen in color) and a nice touch is the addition of several patent office technical drawings on the facing page of the actual lid. The first few pages have an interesting illustrated eighteen page Brief field guide to the coffee lid. Missing from the book, I thought, are a sidebar or two about the companies who make these millions (billions?) of lids, how many hundredths of a second does it take to make a lid? Are there regional companies who makes lids that are not available across America?
　
A delightfully quirky book about an everyday object that despite its simplicity is still inspiring designers to come up with top of the cup ideas.