I've been working my way through Pirc Alert by Chernin recently and would rate the book as excellent for those looking to learn a new opening from scratch.  The book is fantastic in teaching the ideas behind the Pirc and I have found it to be one of the most instructive chess books I have read.

The book is relatively light on theory compared to others, such as Ultimate Pirc, but I do feel that I am gaining enough knowledge and understanding from reading the book to play and think for myself, something I had almost forgotten how to do!

[quote]Opening for White According to Anand Volume 3+4 and Ultimate Pirc are full variations, but i don;t like it, evalutions in some positions are not OK.[/quote]

I'd be interested to know which positions.

- missed Winning with the modern by Dave Norwood.
and new 2 books by Andrew Martin -  THE HIPPOPOTAMUS RISES and Modern defence /this last probably not out/. An Explosive Chess Opening Repertoire for Black is more about 1.d4 d6 system /2.c4 e5 or 2.Nf3 Bg4/ than about Pirc /lot of material was presented in Pirc Alert! or The Ultimate Pirc/. I like Tiger's modern and Pirc Alert, and very good is The Modern Defence by Speelman/McDonald. Opening for White According to Anand Volume 3+4 and Ultimate Pirc are full variations, but i don;t like it, evalutions in some positions are not OK. Starting Out: The Pirc/Modern is for newbie in Pirc/Modern and Pirc Defence Chessbase CD is a bad job.

-Starting Out: The Pirc/Modern by Ghallagher is the best starting book and is excellent even for advanced players looking to take up the Pirc.  It does not contain a lot of material on the Modern, only the Pirc.  You should start with this before you try to play the Modern lines anyway.
-Tiger's Modern is full of original and high quality ideas and is a must buy.
-The Modern Defence by Speelman/McDonald is excellent.  It's another one you should definitely pick up.
-Opening for White According to Anand Volume 4 is great as a repertoire from the White point of view for players who want to play the Austrian attack and don't mind a lot of study.  All of these 'Opening for White According to' books are very detailed, contain good explaination of ideas, and contain plenty of original analysis.  I highly recommend them all.
-Pirc Defence Chessbase CD is another good choice for the basic plans and ideas and well annotated games.
-The Ultimate Pirc by Nunn and McNab is an older book which can be useful sometimes for looking things up after games but does not make a useful teaching tool.
-Pirc Alert! seems to be well liked.  Maybe someone else can comment more on it.
-An Explosive Chess Opening Repertoire for Black has some very good reviews on Amazon.  I can't comment on it since I have never looked at it.

I've got a copy of Tiger's Modern which covers the Modern Defence with ...a6.  This book is excellent although I have not yet tried out any of the ideas for myself yet.

I see on the BCM website that there is a new book out called Carpathian Warrior by Lalic and Okhotnik which is meant to cover the Pirc and Modern but I don't know much else about the book.  Best wait for some reviews I think.

Whats the best book on the Modern and pirc systems?