Do you have a weakness for certain kinds of plots?

Are there plots that, no matter how many books you read with that plot, you can't help but want more?
With me, it's the gothic romance. If there is a big old house, guileless main character, creepy family members hoarding a wealth of family secrets, I AM ALL OVER IT. Bonus points if there's a diary/letter/photograph/necklace that gets said guileless narrator involved!
Favorites of mine include but are not limited to:

The Blind Assassin
Galilee
The Distant Hours
Possession
Little, Big
The Winter Sea
The Thirteenth Tale

I blame the Brontes for this weakness.

Locked room mysteries is what comes to mind first...

I have a weakness for all the many varieties of the book-within-a-book idea, something which often turns out to be gothic romance by the back door.

Running-away-to-sea plots usually do it for me, too, although they're not so common nowadays.

Alternate Reality/sci-fi/horror, are usually my favorites. And in the non-fiction side, specific histories, i.e. Cod or Lost States

The "pig boy"/girl story gets me every time.

Boy/Girl/young man/young woman who comes from nothing (pig farm, orphan, unwanted, etc.) ends up something really special.

Belgariad by Eddings
Arrows of the Queen by Lackey (or any Valdemar, heck any Lackey really)
Kushiel's Dart by Carey
Daughter of the Blood by Bishop
Ender's Game by Card
Magician: Apprentice by Feist
Many books by Tamora Pierce
Rhapsody by Haydon

# 5 The Sharing Knife: Beguilement by Bujold

The Deed of Paksenarrion by Moon

>6 suitable1: Meh. The Bujold was more a fantasy romance than anything else. And a creepy one at that.

I think I read Deed a long time ago. Isn't it very dark and depressing?

#7 - I don't think of it as dark and depressing. Perhaps you're thinking about The Legacy of Gird.

Of course, if we want to get picky, Ender Wiggins is quite special from the very beginning.

I agree, though, the pig boy/girl is among my favorites, too.

>8 suitable1: Oh, I use the loosest of interpretations. :)

>#1- Those are my weakness too I would have to include anything written by Kate Morton all her books have those elements lots of family secrets usually a historical story along with a modern day story.

>#5- I am also a sucker for the pig boy storyline in fantasy

I think right now my plot of choice has been the family secrets especially with the duo of past and present.

>10 susiesharp: Have you read The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield? If not, you might want to give it a shot.

>#11- I have but I read it before I'd really gotten into this kind of book and didn't enjoy it much but I've been thinking of a re-read now that I've come to appreciate this plot!

I like books where a main character is put through the wringer--you know, faith and humanity tested, yet he/she manages to emerge on the other side and carry on. Sort of like The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck or even the movie "Sideways." I find them inspiring! I know I'm blanking on some good ones at the moment...pretty much anything by Jonathan Tropper, I guess. What else? Help me out here, guys...

A sympathetic character who faces challenges and survives. The kind of book I like to read is the same as the kind of book I like to write. I looked at your profile, Jeff, and we share no books so perhaps I have more of a female take on this. I like to know what my characters are thinking and feeling. I have a long list of books to read but I'll add The Winter of Our Discontent to that and see if there is an author I have been missing. Not all the books recommended on LT are in British libraries and I only buy books if I know I want to keep them to share or reread. Of course , Stephen King's characters are often tested but I have discovered he is either loved or hated and perhaps he is not to your taste.
Do guys and gals look for different things in a book, I wonder?

As a writer once said , "Any plot will do as long as it's written well."

All WWII stories have outnumbered GI's being told to, "hold on until we can get supplies to you", all WWI stories are about "oh, the useless waste and inhumaity', of having take some trench somewhere in France, while all romances follow the line of, girl gets boy, girl loses boy, girl gets boy back.

If the plot is the central point of the book then it carries a greater burden. It is out front for everybody to focus on.

If it's badly written the reader says, "oh no, not another one of these". On the other hand people have debated for decades about what Dostoevsky's story plots were or whether there were plots in his stories at all.

Come on, be honest. After the first two pages of "Erin Brockovich" didn't you know how the plot was going to unfold and how it was going to all end?