If you've been to a bookstore lately, you've probably noticed that Bernie Madoff has replaced teenage wizards and vampires on the new-releases table. Madoff, the villain at the center of the biggest Ponzi scheme in history, has inspired no fewer than four hardcover books that have all come out in the last two weeks. That's in addition to a pair of quickie paperbacks from last spring and another book set to hit in September, and who knows how many memoirs of ripped-off investors that are probably making the rounds.

"There's a 'me too-ism' in publishing as there is in a lot of entertainment," says Sara Nelson, former editor of Publishers Weekly and a longtime industry observer. "If a little information is good, a lot is better."

Nelson acknowledges that five books on the same topic is a lot, but it's nothing compared to the 10 books that came out about Enron, including The Smartest Guys in the Room, Conspiracy of Fools, Power Failure, and Pipe Dreams. (And that's not including the various management, accounting, and personal-finance books that have used Enron in their titles to inspire—or scare—readers into picking them up.)

In the coming months, expect a spate of titles about the past year's financial meltdown, among them Andrew Ross Sorkin's Too Big to Fail and Roger Lowenstein's Six Days That Shook the World, as well as an untitled book co-written by the New York Times' Joe Nocera and Vanity Fair's Bethany McLean and a volume from the Wall Street Journal's Kate Kelly, among others.

But as readers pick that last book for the long Labor Day weekend read, it's all Bernie, all the time. (That is, until publishers can get out their Michael Jackson books.)

"I think that the appetite for this is so big that people may go in and buy three books on Bernie Madoff," Nelson says. "It's kind of an archetypal story of greed and hubris. It has elements of Greek tragedy in it.

"It's such a rich story—no pun intended."

Here's a little guide to help you pick which Bernie Madoff book is right for you.

Too Good to Be True: The Rise and Fall of Bernie Madoff, by Erin Arvedlund (Portfolio Books)

Length: 320 pages

Selling Point: Arvedlund was one of the first journalists to question Madoff's returns in a 2001 Barron's article.

What you can expect: Explanations of hedge funds, electronic trading, and the SEC.

Who should read it: Subscribers to the Wall Street Journal.

Madoff With the Money, by Jerry Oppenheimer (Wiley)

Length: 272 pages

Selling Point: Oppenheimer has written write-around biographies of loved and hated celebrities like Paris Hilton, Martha Stewart, and Anna Wintour.

What you can expect: "This is not another static business book, a primer on white-collar crime, but rather an in-depth profile," Oppenheimer says in his intro.

Who should read it: Subscribers to Vanity Fair.

Betrayal: The Life and Lies of Bernie Madoff, by Andrew Kirtzman (HarperCollins)

Length: 307 pages

Selling Point: Who is the real Bernie Madoff? Kirtzman puts the Rockaway-born schemer on the couch and looks at the personality flaws that led him to a life of crime.

What you can expect: Moral outrage. Lots of it.

Who should read it: Subscribers to the New York Daily News.

Madoff's Other Secret: Love, Money, Bernie, and Me, by Sheryl Weinstein (St. Martin's Press)

Length: 224 pages

Selling Point: Bernie Madoff's penis, which Weinstein, former CFO of Hadassah, claims is a lot shorter than her book.

What you can expect: After describing the perpetrator's penis and telling the world his nickname was "Mr. Winky Dinky," don't expect all that much.

Who should read it: Subscribers to The National Enquirer.

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Matt Haber is the media blogger for Portfolio.com.