And there was me thinking I was the only font-geek around (except for people who get paid to make fonts. I want that job...)

I actually know exactly what you're talking about with Bembo, although I'll admit it wasn't a font I recognized the name of. I have over-used both Garamond and Bodoni in personal documents to the point where I can no longer use either, and find them both somewhat disheartening or even unpleasant. I too get physical reactions to fonts.

When I set up the tutoring company with friends, one of the things I did was to reprint the same paragraph in multiple fonts to find which they liked the best. The result was Bookman Old Style, which will probably go the way of Garamond and Bodoni in my mind eventually, but which for now I find refreshing and new. It's a very nice font to use for 'education' I think - there is something about it that smacks of school books, and perhaps even the 'learning to write' books where you trace the letters. Something about the height-to-width ratio, I think. (My friends thought I was insane for even thinking about it. Clearly they underestimate the power of a good font, or worse, a bad one.)