Category browsing and searching

Hi folks,

I love this site and all who sail in it, but I am also a picky reader with strong likes and dislikes. I've tried using the Category Browser and that's great for including things but unless I'm just a klutz at figuring things out, I don't think there's a way of excluding a certain category from the results.

I would love to be able to do searches which excluded certain topics.

I wonder does anyone else wish there was this functionality? And I wonder if it's probably not asking too much, because I know our illustrious site goddesses are alrady worked off their feet doing a great job, and I have no idea at all how difficult whatI'm asking is.

But it's just an idea, for a rainy day, if it were, perhaps, at all possible - or perhaps you're going to tell me I'm being obtusre and the functionality is already there if I knew how to work it?

Best wishes
Alice