What Comes First?

What comes first, the character or the plot? This question has been puzzling me for the last few days. As some of you may be aware, I love writing and at the moment I feel like I am on a bit of a journey to discover the kind of thing I would like to write about. I have many ideas for characters and plots and sometimes they come together to form something that could work and sometimes they don't! I have been thinking about an idea for a central character for a while but I don't feel confident about the type of plot she would be involved in, if that makes any sense!!
Personally, when I read a book, the characters are the most important aspect, if I can't take to the characters or believe in them then I probably won't like the book. On the other hand a really bad plot can not always be salvaged by excellent characters. It's such a balancing act and it makes me have such a lot of respect for those authors who pull it off and make it seem effortless.
I'm not sure how others feel about this, do you prefer books that are character driven or do you need something with a really strong and intricate plot?

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

WOW! This is one of the best books that I have ever read! I was intrigued by all the hype surrounding this young adult book about vampires so I decided to investigate and I simply fell in love with it. I was totally drawn in and could not put this book down. Bella Swan moves to the small town of Forks and meets Edward Cullen (a 107 year old vampire in the bodily form on a 17 year old), they fall in love with each other and this book follows the difficulties in their relationship and the obstacles that they have to overcome; the main one being that Edward has to stop himself from eating Bella.
For me it is the characters that made this book so special to me; Meyer is totally driven by them. She describes how they look, walk, think, the music they like, the way they smell, the way the light falls on their skin; the tiniest movements they make. Due to all of this you are led to care about the characters deeply and obviously this makes you want to keep reading in order to find out what happens. It does help that the character of Edward Cullen is so mesmerising; honestly I am 26 but I have felt like a 15 year old girl with a crush when reading this. For me he is like the Maxim de Winter of the vampire world; he totally loves Bella with everything that he has yet he is so frightened of hurting her or putting her at risk. There is an element of Romeo and Juliet about this; they are very much star-crossed lovers and their love is so, so intense.
There is not one aspect of this book that I did not enjoy and I will be reading the others in the series. I know that people have knocked Meyer's writing but in no way is it awful; for me she is a totally character driven author and I love that type of writing. Twilight is a love story at the end of the day with a massive twist but it is the twist that makes the story so intense and the characters so complex. I completely loved this book and I know that I will be reading it again in the future.