Subject: pKa of water is not 7 ???

I was reading the other day and:
pKa of water is 15.74
I couldn't believe my eyes. The book, which was on O Chem says that "In dilute
aqueous solution, alcohols have approximately the same pKa values as water. For
example, the pKa of methanol in water is 15.5, while that of pure water is 15.74
(not 14, which is the pKw)"

as far as I know, water doesn't have a pKa. If we must assign a pKa to water, it
is very intuitive to me that pKa of water should be 7... but its not.

Can anyone explain why pKa of water isn't 7?

Re: pKa of water is not 7 ???