In Herman Melville’s opening chapter of Moby Dick, the seaman Ishmael talks of the magnetic attraction of water.  You can hear it read by Tilda Swinton as part of The Big Read project.

Excerpt:

There now is your insular city of the Manhattoes, belted round by wharves as Indian isles by coral reefs- commerce surrounds it with her surf. Right and left, the streets take you waterward. Its extreme downtown is the battery, where that noble mole is washed by waves, and cooled by breezes, which a few hours previous were out of sight of land. Look at the crowds of water-gazers there.

Circumambulate the city of a dreamy Sabbath afternoon. Go from Corlears Hook to Coenties Slip, and from thence, by Whitehall, northward. What do you see?- Posted like silent sentinels all around the town, stand thousands upon thousands of mortal men fixed in ocean reveries. Some leaning against the spiles; some seated upon the pier-heads; some looking over the bulwarks of ships from China; some high aloft in the rigging, as if striving to get a still better seaward peep. But these are all landsmen; of week days pent up in lath and plaster- tied to counters, nailed to benches, clinched to desks. How then is this? Are the green fields gone? What do they here?

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In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg looks at the fascinating water molecule.

Water on In Our Time BBC website>>

” It is a rare example of a substance that can be found on Earth in gaseous, liquid and solid forms, and thanks to its unique chemical behaviour is the basis of all known life. Scientists are still discovering new things about it, such as the fact that there are at least fifteen different forms of ice.”

A museum of bottled water by artist Amy Shurrock

“Museum of Water is a collection of publicly donated water and accompanying stories. Accumulating over the course of a week in lit cabinets along the street, Museum of Water is an invitation to ponder our precious liquid and how we use it.”